MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US: Romney consolidates as Republican presidential front-runner

The next step for the former governor is South Carolina

Mitt Romney cemented his status as the Republican presidential front-runner on Tuesday with a win in the New Hampshire primary that left rivals fighting for a chance to derail his march to the nomination as the race moves south.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who won the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses by eight votes, ran 16 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor in New Hampshire. He had 39% of the vote followed by US Representative Ron Paul of Texas finished with 23% and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. with 17%.
 

“Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we go back to work,” Romney told supporters in Manchester last night in a speech that debuted new lines of attack against President Barack Obama.
 

Romney told his audience the president he hopes to oppose in November “has run out of ideas” and is “running out of excuses.”
 

Referring to the next primary on Jan. 21, Romney added: “Tonight, we’re asking the good people of South Carolina to join the citizens of New Hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time.”
 

Romney made history as the first Republican non-incumbent to win both the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses since Iowa began kicking off the party’s presidential nominating process in 1976.
 

The final days of the New Hampshire campaign suggested the South Carolina contest could be marked by attacks on Romney that aim to blunt his momentum by undercutting his argument that he is the candidate best able to revive the US economy.
 

Romney has argued that his experience as head of investment firm Bain Capital would make him the best candidate to put the shaky US economy on a stronger footing. But in recent days, rivals like former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich have painted him as a heartless corporate raider who enjoys cutting jobs - an unusual debate in the business-friendly Republican Party.
 

 The next step for the former governor is South Carolina