Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, cruised to a victory in Tuesday night’s New Hampshire primary. He has now won both nominating contests held so far, helping to reinforce his standing as the candidate to beat for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. The next stop in the race is South Carolina, where, if Romney prevails he might become unstoppable in the race. Ron Paul finished second in New Hampshire with ex-Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. finishing third.
“This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation,” Romney said. “This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We must offer an alternative vision.”
Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich struggled in New Hampshire. Amongst the major contenders, Texas Governor Rick Perry finished close to the end of the pack in New Hampshire.
“We’re going to take to South Carolina tonight and kick off tomorrow morning a campaign for jobs and economic growth,” the former speaker, Newt Gingrich, said. “A campaign for a balanced budget, a campaign for returning power to the states, a campaign for a strong national security, a campaign for a stable, solid Social Security program. . . . If we are smart, we can do better things for people.”
On the modern nominating calendar, Romney’s win in New Hampshire days after his Iowa caucus win was the first time this happened for a non-incumbent Republican.
“Tonight we made history!” Romney said as he walked onto the stage.
The opponents of Romney were trying to downplay him being the former governor of a neighboring state from 2003 to 2007 and having a vacation home in New Hampshire before the polls closed on Tuesday night.
“He’s a homeboy,” Huntsman said of Romney. “I mean, he’s been here for a whole lot of years.”
The majority of the criticism facing Romney has been centered around his record as a corporate turnaround artist in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Romney has highlighted this as one of his best assets in the election, even though the struggling economy is the hot topic on everyone’s agenda.
Polls show that close to seven in ten voters from New Hampshire are worried about the economy, which is three times higher than those saying it four years ago, prior to the economy hitting a speed bump.
“We’re degenerating into a lot of finger-pointing and negative advertising that is going to hurt the conservative agenda,” Ovide Lamontagne, a GOP candidate for New Hampshire governor, said.
“This is very unfortunate,” radio host Rush Limbaugh said. “This is not the kind of stuff that you want said by Republicans.”
Those working on the Romney campaign claim that they will not be bothered by the attacks against him, noting that his strategists expected the Democrats to pounce on those arguments anyway. The questions thrown at Romney and the attacks against him are expected to get worse as the campaign heads to South Carolina.
