Republican frontrunner jokes about Iowa photo finish with Santorum, lands McCain endorsement and attacks Obama
Bouyed by the narrowest of possible victories in Iowa, the Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney landed in New Hampshire and ignored his party rivals to launch an immediate attack on President Barack Obama.
He shrugged off the narrowness of his win in Iowa against social conservative former senator Rick Santorum, which saw him claim victory by just a tenth of a percentage point and is the closest caucus result in Iowa history.
Laughing in front of a packed town hall in the New Hampshire small town of Peterborough, Romney said he was "fresh from his landslide victory" in Iowa before calling the result a "squeaker". He then asked: "Do you think we can do a little better in New Hampshire?"
That seems likely. Romney is expected to win New Hampshire by a large margin. He has led in the polls for months, often getting more than 40% of the vote in the state. Social conservatives, some of whom are distrustful of Romney's Mormon religion and his liberal past political views, are less important in the state than in Iowa. Romney is also well known here because of his time as governor of neighbouring Massachusetts and he maintains a family holiday home in New Hampshire.
That strong lead could give him political space to ignore his Republican and instead look ahead to a contest with Obama. In Peterborough Romney slammed Obama for failing to tackle persistently high unemployment and vowed to repeal Obama's healthcare reforms. "We have a president who offered a lot of promises but the performance has been lacking ," he told the audience. Romney said Obama had pursued a model of changing America into a "European social welfare state" that had stifled private enterprise. "They foster class warfare which poisons the spirit of one nation," he said, before going on to recite verses from the hymn America the Beautiful.
It was a confident performance but Romney's campaign has come under criticism for failing to win over much of the Republican party's conservative base. In fact, as Santorum surged in Iowa to almost beat him, Romney actually pulled in a lower level of support than he did when he ran for the nomination in Iowa in 2008. That has led some experts to speculate that Romney is leading simply because of the weakness of the rest of the field and the way conservative opposition has divided amongst flawed or extreme candidates like former House speaker Newt Gingrich, libertarian Ron Paul and Texas governor Rick Perry.
But at the same time the Romney campaign has run a tight ship, making few mistakes and adopting a cautious but firm attitude to the race. It has also shown a ruthless side, happily watching as its allies released millions of dollars of attack ads in Iowa that reduced Gingrich from major threat to also-ran.
Romneyrolled out a major and dramatic endorsement as soon as he touched down in New Hampshire, dubbed the Granite State. Former Republican nominee Senator John McCain – who beat Romney in the 2008 race – appeared at Romney's first post-Iowa rally in Manchester, New Hampshire's biggest city, and also at the Peterborough meeting. This not only saw one of the Republican party's most senior figures bestow his blessing on Romney, but put an end to any lingering suspicion between the two men left over from an at times bitter race four years ago. McCain cracked jokes and gave a feisty performance as he endorsed Romney. Unlike Romney, McCain gave a nod to the other candidates still in the undecided Republican race and urged the crowd to get behind Romney in New Hampshire and in the next state: South Carolina. "We have to send him to South Carolina with such momentum that he cannot be stopped ... get this thing over with and get the real contest going," McCain said.
In Peterborough there were few people who did not expect Romney to win New Hampshire easily. "It's pretty much inevitable," said Adam Sherwin, 27, who said he was divided between supporting Romney or supporting Jon Huntsman, a former governor of Utah who has staked his whole campaign on New Hampshire. "I probably like Huntsman a lot more but I just think Romney is going to be the one who will win it."
That feeling of Romney's power in New Hampshire is common amid the state's frozen hills and frosty mountains. Romney has carefully courted local big wigs all over the state, securing scores of key endorsements. Others in Peterborough were more strident in their support for Romney than Sherwin. "I keep an open mind but I am committed to him. It would take something big to change my mind, something very negative," said Bill Thompson, who said he had brought his young son to the meeting in order to show him how the democratic process works.
There is little doubt that Romney's rivals, especially Gingrich, will seek to unload on the former governor over the next week until the voters go to the polls on 10 January. However, experts say that one of Romney's main strengths is that he has been in high public life for so long that he is thoroughly vetted. Unlike former frontrunner Herman Cain, who dropped out of the race after a sex scandal, Romney likely has few surprises to emerge after essentially permanently running for president since 2007. His main rival is now Santorum.
"Santorum has set himself to be the blue collar social conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," said Patrick Griffin, a political expert at St Anselm College in New Hampshire and a former adviser to top Republican figures like George Bush.
Few expect that alternative to really take off in New Hampshire. Friendlier territory for Santorum lies in South Carolina in the far more conservative south.
However, there were a few Santorum supporters in the crowd who had come to look at Romney but had little desire to back him at the ballot box. "I really like Rick Santorum. I was a little disappointed when he was down in the polls but now he is coming back up," said Kevin Krawic.
Griffin thinks Romney would be wise not to take New Hampshire for granted. Politics is a zero sum game and does not tolerate complacency even when a candidate is as far ahead as Romney is in the state. "Santorum could show he has got more game than anyone thinks he has," Griffin said.