Republican rivals turn their guns on Obama

REPUBLICAN presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum looked past each other to run down President Barack Obama’s economic policies, as they jockeyed for support in New Hampshire and reached out to voters in conservative bellwether South Carolina.

Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman were happy to level their criticism at Romney, casting the front-runner as too timid to take on Obama and bring about needed change.

Romney is reaching for a decisive victory in New Hampshire to solidify his standing. At a stop in Salem before heading to South Carolina, Romney labelled Obama a “crony capitalist”, invoking a theme Michele Bachmann had used before dropping out of the race.

Santorum, under new scrutiny after a strong showing in Iowa’s kickoff caucuses, offered himself as “the conservative alternative” to Romney and claimed he’s got the momentum to propel his campaign beyond New Hampshire.

Gingrich, the former House speaker, kept up his campaign to pull down Romney. In his first TV ad, Gingrich sizes up Romney’s economic plan as “virtually identical to Obama’s failed policy” and goes on to say that “timid won’t create jobs and timid certainly won’t defeat Barack Obama.”

Gingrich also gave a dismissive assessment of Santorum when asked to size up the former Pennsylvania senator, saying “in historical terms, he would be a junior partner.” He questioned whether Santorum has a “track record” for running a large-scale national campaign, as Gingrich did when he engineered the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.

Huntsman, who skipped the Iowa caucuses, also hammered at Romney, casting him as a captive of Wall Street. Hoping for a breakout, Huntsman offered himself as the underdog for New Hampshire voters to take “from the back of the pack” and move to the foreground.

Romney pocketed a big endorsement on Wednesday from Arizona Senator John McCain, who argued it is time for Republicans to coalesce around Romney and “get into the main event” — defeating Obama.

McCain is popular with Republicans and independents, who can vote in the primary.

Caucus poll

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Rick Santorum is gaining ground in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, but rival Mitt Romney still holds a strong lead ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

Santorum, who finished slightly behind Romney in this week’s Iowa nominating contest, rose to third place among likely primary voters, according to a 7 News/Suffolk University tracking poll, edging ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman.

With 8% of voters polled supporting him, Santorum is well behind Romney, who has 41% support. Ron Paul was second in the poll with 18% support.