The gripe from the McCain camp isn’t so much that Romney loaned his campaign $18 million last quarter — okay, they’re griping about that, too — but that so much of Romney’s personal fortune is being converted into negative ads.

That gripe may be a little outdated.

Putting aside the issue of whether Romney can get the nomination – as I’ve said earlier, I think the path ahead for him is difficult but not impossible — the negative ads clearly didn’t work as planned in Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney racked up his best wins — Michigan and Nevada — when he campaigned as “Mr. Fix-It” with “automobiles in his bloodstream.” (I admit, when he first said that, I thought it was a medical condition.)

Romney’s buying up a lot of ad time – $2 million to $3 million according to this report, $7 million according to this one. If he throws up millions in negative ads, I wonder if he’s just throwing bad money after good… Right now, the argument that McCain is not conservative enough (or at all) is reverberating through talk radio, much of NRO, etc. and much of the mainstream press is at least addressing the charges from orthodox conservatives.

McCain’s foes in the conservative movement will do the negative work. Romney needs to reinforce the positive message – “here’s why I’m the better choice.”

Plus, the big question – will Romney push hard in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut? Right now McCain has those three delegate-rich winner-take-all states in his back pocket, along with Arizona. It’s tough to see McCain having a bad day unless Romney can push him there.