Romney to leave nothing to chance as Obama looks to November

By Anne K Walters and Marco Mierke Jan 4, 2012, 18:33 GMT

Des Moines, Iowa - Patrick Bragen knew exactly what he had to do.

The young man clad in jeans and a T-shirt addressed the 80 attendees at one Iowa caucus with a slick, prepared speech in favour of Mitt Romney, who has left nothing to chance in his White House bid.

'We need someone who is able to chase Obama out of the White House,' he declared, echoing the conclusion of many of the state's Romney supporters, who propelled the former Massachusetts governor to a hairsbreadth victory over former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum in Tuesday's caucuses.

With the first contest of the Republican nominating process - which will determine who will face President Barack Obama in the November general elections - out of the way, the question is whether Romney can consolidate his advances or whether the more conservative Santorum, or some other candidate, can rise up to beat him.

Santorum was in New Hampshire Wednesday, less than a week ahead of that state's key primary contest. But, after lagging for months in opinion polls, he has much work to do to boost his weak fundraising coffers and campaign organization.

No one seems as prepared as Romney, who is considered a clear favourite in the north-eastern state, leading by 27 percentage points in the most recent opinion survey.

Nationally, however, Romney has been less able to consolidate support as conservative voters seek out nearly any alternative among the crowded Republican field - leading candidate after candidate to brief stints at the top of the polls.

'The reason the GOP is having such a chaotic primary fight has nothing to do with the Tea Party. Frankly, it has nothing to do with the bulk of the GOP not wanting Romney,' opined conservative commentator Erick Erickson, referring to the wing of the party that has gained enormous sway with its calls for economic and spending reforms.

Iowa political commentator David Yepsen said ahead of the contest that a win for Santorum would position him as the alternative social conservative candidate. But other candidates, including former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, came out swinging to unseat Romney and claim that mantle.

Gingrich, who ended in fourth place in Iowa with 13 per cent of the vote, has struck a conciliatory tone towards Santorum, but on Wednesday unveiled an ad in New Hampshire newspapers describing Romney as a Massachusetts moderate.

That charge could sting Romney, who has faced the most criticism for the health care reform he instituted during his time as governor, and for more moderate positions on social issues during that time, which he has since denounced.

Obama, meanwhile, has been preparing to paint any challenger as too far to the right, even as he defends his own record.

While Republicans in Iowa caucused Tuesday evening, Obama conducted a conference call with Democrats in the state as he begins to make his own case for re-election.

'Change is never easy,' he said. 'The problems that we've been dealing with over the last three years, they didn't happen overnight and we're not going to fix them overnight. But we've been making steady progress, as long as we can sustain it.'

Obama emphasized that much had been accomplished during his first term, including passing health insurance reform and efforts to jump-start the economy, but that more needed to be done in a second four-year term.

His campaign organizers painted the close outcome in Iowa as a failure of Republicans to coalesce around a single candidate, despite spending millions of dollars and thousands of hours in the state. Obama campaign manager Jim Missina pondered in an email to supporters why Republicans cannot get behind Romney, who had long been seen as the party's heir apparent.

In any event, he wrote: 'The path ahead for Romney - or whichever of the Republican candidates is going to emerge from this process - is sadly and starkly very clear: to run even further to the extreme right, and make even more dangerous promises that threaten not only the progress we've made, but the fundamental fabric of American society.'

The Republicans, however, will do everything they can to make sure that charge doesn't stick - with 11 months to go until Americans choose who will spend the next four years in the White House.