Fellow Republicans hammer Romney in debate

WASHINGTON (AP):

Fellow Republican candidates hacked away at Mitt Romney's front-runner status yesterday in the second debate in two days as New Hampshire voters were deciding on their choice for the party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in November.

Former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich abandoned his vow to run a positive campaign, issuing sharp attacks on Romney and, at one point, accusing the former Massachusetts governor of running a campaign of "pious baloney" for saying he's not a career politician. Gingrich also accused Romney of hiding behind inaccurate attack television ads by his allies.

Like Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum hit Romney hard for his moderate record, one that conservative Republicans say make him a weak Republican standard-bearer in a time of deep and bitter partisan divisions across the country.

The six candidates debated in a gathering in Concord, New Hampshire, sponsored by the NBC television network and Facebook.

Clear favourite

Voters in New Hampshire, the tiny northeastern state that holds the nation's first primary election of the nominating season, will cast their ballots tomorrow for a favourite from among the Republicans still in the race.

Romney is the overwhelming favourite in the state, where he maintains a vacation home and is well known to voters in New Hampshire for his four-year term as governor in neighboring Massachusetts. Romney's rivals hope to hold down his margin of victory and are jostling to finish in the top tier of candidates to gain momentum heading into the next nominating contests in southern states with large numbers of social conservatives who may be wary of Romney's shifting positions on abortion and gay rights.

The issue of which of the candidates is most electable has become a major issue in the contest for the Republican nomination. Obama is vulnerable as he seeks a second term because of the weak US economy, continuing high unemployment and the slow recovery from the 2007-2009 Great Recession and near financial meltdown in the last months of the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Former Utah Gov Jon Huntsman, who served as Obama's first ambassador to China, provided perhaps the strongest retort of the debate to Romney. The front-runner said in Saturday night's debate that Huntsman was not qualified to be the Republican nominee because he had served in the Obama administration.

"I just want to remind the people here in New Hampshire and throughout the United States, he criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy," Huntsman said. "They're not asking what political affiliation the president is."