Romney stages revival ahead of critical vote

Mitt Romney is fighting his way back into the driver’s seat in the Republican presidential race, putting in a strong debate performance in Arizona and gaining in polls against conservative rival Rick Santorum.

An aggressive Romney repeatedly put Santorum on the defensive in their last CNN debate and attacked the former senator and staunch social conservative for supporting big-spending government programmes.

Romney has also battled his way into a slight lead in a new poll in Michigan, which along with Arizona will hold a primary contest next Tuesday. Romney had trailed Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, by as much as double digits a week ago in the Michigan race.

Romney won the cautious endorsement from Michigan’s largest newspaper — with the caveat that the former Massachusetts governor stop “chest-beating” with his rivals and return the focus to his record and collaborative leadership.

The pace of the Republican race quickens dramatically next month, with 22 states holding nominating contests in March, including 10 on “Super Tuesday” March 6.

“This debate will really give Romney some momentum heading into the Michigan primary,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said. “Santorum clearly was having a hard time having to apologise and explain so many of his votes.”

The debate was Santorum’s first time in the political spotlight since charging into a national lead after winning three contests on February 7 in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

But his sometimes awkward defence of votes he cast in the Senate, including his claim that politics was a “team sport” and that he sometimes had to vote for bills that he did not like, could hurt his support among conservatives tired of Washington politics-as-usual.

“There is always an excuse,” rival Ron Paul said of Santorum’s various explanations. “That’s what the problem is with Washington,” said Paul, a Texas congressman who described Santorum’s fiscal conservatism as “fake”.

The primary in Michigan, where Romney was born and raised and his father was an auto executive and popular governor, has become a must-win for Romney, the former head of a private equity group.

A Romney loss there would be crippling blow that would set off alarm bells among Republicans about his ability to win the allegiance of conservatives, ensuring a long and potentially draining battle for the nomination.

But a win in Michigan and Arizona would put Romney back in command in a race that has featured a series of conservative rivals who have risen to challenge him only to fall back into the pack.

The Detroit Free Press criticised him for shifting away from his record and said he was “dead wrong” for opposing the government bailout for the auto industry.

But, the newspaper’s editorial board wrote: “Romney, unlike the zealous Rick Santorum, the impulsive Newt Gingrich and the backward-thinking Ron Paul, is preferable to the rest of the field. He is the only one who has the combination of resume and bearing to occupy the Oval Office.”

New polls in Michigan and Arizona showed Romney gaining ground on Santorum. He held a slight 2-point edge on Santorum in an NBC/Marist poll in Michigan, and a 16-point edge in an NBC/Marist poll in Arizona, where a CNN/Time poll earlier in the week gave him just a 4-point edge.