Romney defends his record amid job killer jibes

REPUBLICAN front-runner Mitt Romney continued to defend his leadership of a private equity firm amid claims he was a job killer while he was chief executive.

Romney is facing attack ads from rival Newt Gingrich in South Carolina over his tenure at Bain Capital, a private equity outfit that bought and restructured companies, sometimes resulting in the loss of jobs.

The objective of Gingrich, along with fellow conservative candidate Rick Perry, is to try to stop Romney’s momentum towards the 2012 Republican presidential nomination after his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.