Billionaire Joe Ricketts’ “black, metrosexual Abe Lincoln” ad was mercifully killed, but it wouldn’t have been the worst this year. Here we present the 2012 cycle’s eight most outrageous ads, to date:

Jon Huntsman Is The Manchurian Candiate

Just before New Hampshire’s primary, an outside group supporting Ron Paul released this ad insinuating that Jon Huntsman is a Chinese agent.

Asian Stereotypes Love Debbie Stabenow

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI,) a candidate for Senate in Michigan, attacked incumbent Debbie Stabenow during the Super Bowl with this weird racist ad.

Rick Perry: Celebrate Christmas, Not Gays

“There’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas,” said Perry —  wearing the same jacket seen on Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Mitt Romney Is A Serial Killer

Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC created this satirical ad about Romney’s lethal assaults on corporate “persons.” 

Seriously, Mitt Romney Is Evil

Unlike Colbert’s ad, the Newt Gingrich-aligned Super PAC’s movie about Bain Capital was completely serious — and seriously misleading.

Mitt Romney Forced Holocaust Survivors To Eat Non-Kosher

Desperate to win the Florida primary, Gingrich robocalls claimed “Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher.”

President Obama Will Cause The Apocalypse

This Rick Santorum ad, hard to distinguish from a standard zombie film, says re-electing Obama would end the world as we know it.

Herman Cain Is Completely Insane

Herman Cain released several blatantly crazy ads in 2012 but this one — featuring an unfortunate rabbit — was truly sick.