Rick Perry ties Gingrich, Romney to ‘Obamacare’

Mitt Romney isn’t the only candidate with a healthcare problem in the GOP primary.

One-time front-runner Rick Perry, in part of a furious bid to make up ground before the Iowa caucuses, is linking Newt Gingrich to Romney and President Obama in a new television ad.

“We don’t want government-mandated healthcare. Yet Newt Gingrich supports it. And Mitt Romney? He put it into law in Massachusetts,” the narrator says.

Perry himself then says he “won’t let the big government liberals ruin this country,” and promises to repeal Obama’s healthcare law.

The Texas governor’s campaign is looking to find an opening for the candidate in what has become a two-man race in each of the early states. A spokesman sold Perry as the candidate who “has never served in Washington or been an establishment favorite.”

Perry has been all over the Iowa airwaves of late. On Wednesday he released another ad aimed squarely at evangelicals, decrying Obama’s “war on religion.”

Perry’s comeback bid won’t just be on the air. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that Perry will also barnstorming the state in the final three-plus weeks before the caucuses, with plans to visit 44 cities in 14 days, starting next week.