Presidential candidate Mitt Romney Thursday unabashedly “promised” to keep attacking his Republican rivals and said he would “absolutely” continue running negative advertisements for the remainder of the nominating process in lieu of presenting his own platform, Townhall reported.

Romney said this at a campaign rally at Principle Financial building in downtown Des Moines when a questioner asked if he planned to keep going negative on opponents.

Romney said he would not attack anyone’s character, but he would be “forthright about differences on issues” like taxes, immigration and crime with this Republican opponents. “Part of politics and a good campaign is defining those differences,” he said.

In Iowa, Romney has been running television advertisements that detail the pardons and commutations his top Iowan rival Mike Huckabee issued as Governor of Arkansas. In New Hampshire, Romney has been jabbing GOP presidential candidate John McCain over the Arizona senator’s opposition to the Bush tax cuts and support for comprehensive immigration reform. [AMANDA CARPENTER - Townhall]

This means that, unless Romney is out of the race after the New Hampshire or Michigan primaries, we can expect to see millions of dollars worth of negative campaigning in South Carolina. And the worse Romney does tonight and next week, the dirtier it will be.

Oh joy….