After Iowa, Romney appears set for New Hampshire win

Caribbean News.Net Wednesday 11th January, 2012

NEW HAMPSHIRE - Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appeared poised for his second victory Tuesday at the New Hampshire primary the first primary in the Republican nomination process.

Romney had won last week's Iowa contest by just eight votes over former Senator Rick Santorum.

Primaries and caucuses are different methods of choosing a party's candidate for office. They are to take place in every US state over the next few months before the eventual Republican winner is crowned in August.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are vying for conservative votes and banking on the primary later this month in South Carolina, where the other contenders hope to halt Romney's winning spree.

Romney, meanwhile, gave ammunition to his rivals on Monday in an off-the-cuff remark on how he wanted consumers to pick and choose private health insurers.

"If you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me," said Romney, who is under attack over his leadership of a private equity firm, Bain Capital.

Former governor of Utah and one time US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, immediately pounced on the remark, saying, "Governor Romney enjoys firing people; I enjoy creating jobs."

Texas Governor Rick Perry attacked Romney over the remark, saying he knew what it was like to fear a "pink slip", or being fired.

"I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips, whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out," Perry said Monday.

However, Romney has rebuffed the attacks, claiming he helped to create more than 100,000 jobs during his time at private equity fund Bain Capital.

According to pollsters, Huntsman, who has all but staked his entire candidacy on Tuesday's vote, was competing for second place with Ron Paul.

If Romney gets a resounding win Tuesday, it will give him momentum for going into South Carolina on January 21 and Florida on January 31. He leads in both states and victories there could all but sew up his nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.