Romney looking forward to long race

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today that he is looking forward to a long nomination race after beating Rick Santorum by the narrowest of margins in the Iowa caucuses.

Mr Romney spoke as a Republican official told The Associated Press that Senator John McCain planned to endorse Mr Romney, a signal from the 2008 Republican presidential nominee to the rest of the party to rally around the former Massachusetts governor.

Mr Romney appeared before supporters late on Tuesday, before final voting returns were announced showing him with an eight-vote margin over Mr Santorum in the first contest of the presidential nominating cycle.

Ron Paul finished third, and Mr Romney congratulated both on their performances.

“On to New Hampshire!” he declared shortly before midnight as he prepared to leave Iowa. “We’ve got some work ahead.”

Mr Santorum said his only surprise about the McCain endorsement was that it had not come earlier.

“John is a more moderate member of the Republican team, and I think he fits in with Mitt’s view of the world,” he said on CNN.

Mr Santorum endorsed Mr Romney over Mr McCain in 2008 and dismissed a suggestion that Mr McCain was paying him back for that move.

Surrounded by his wife and family at a victory party, Mr Romney ignored barbs from his Republican presidential rivals. Instead, he focused his remarks on Barack Obama, saying the President has mismanaged foreign policy, the economy and the federal deficit.

“This has been a failed presidency,” he said.

Mr Romney said he is the candidate best equipped to manage the economy, and vowed to scrap Mr Obama’s signature healthcare plan.

“The President may be a nice guy, but he’s just over his head,” he said, telling the crowd that his private-sector experience makes him better suited than Mr Obama to create jobs in a downtrodden economy.

Mr Romney spent most of 2011 playing down how well he would do in Iowa. He spent just 18 days in the state ahead of the caucuses.

Prior to the 2008 contest, he spent more than 100 days in Iowa. He also ran his campaign with far fewer staff and with less money this time.

The result means his performance in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first primary next Tuesday, is more critical than ever. His campaign has long said he will need to do well there in order to win the Republican nomination.

Unlike Iowa, he has maintained a strong lead in New Hampshire for months. Surveys consistently show him with more than 40% support, far ahead of his closest rivals. Mr Santorum has polled in single digits.

Mr Romney’s rivals also signalled that they are going to try hard to bloody the former Massachusetts governor. So far, he has avoided intense attacks as his rivals have jockeyed to become the conservative alternative to his candidacy.

In his speech on Tuesday night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who finished fourth in Iowa, labelled Mr Romney a “Massachusetts moderate” who would be “pretty good at managing the decay but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure”.

When Mr Romney arrives in Manchester, he will be greeted with a full-page Gingrich ad attacking him in the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, a key voice in the Republican primary which has endorsed Mr Gingrich.

But Mr Romney’s team is confident that he is the only candidate with the organisation, money and support to win the nomination.

In a show of strength, he was heading to South Carolina for several campaign events in the state which holds the first primary in the southern states on January 21.