Republican presidential hopefuls crisscrossed Iowa yesterday in a final frenzied push for votes ahead of the heartland state’s first-in-the-nation contest to pick the party’s nominee.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, savouring his regained frontrunner status, ripped President Barack Obama’s annual vacation to his native Hawaii as a sign the Democrat was out of touch with struggling Americans.
“He’s in Hawaii right now. We’re out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about America; he’s out there. He just finished his 90th round of golf,” he told a rowdy crowd in West Des Moines last Friday.
Former senator Rick Santorum credited his relentless crisscrossing of the state and his fierce, take-no-prisoners appeals to social conservatives for his surge to third place in the polls ahead of Iowa’s caucuses on Tuesday.
“The consistent, strong, conservative message, full throttle, not apologising, and with a track record of being able to win tough elections – I think that’s finally starting to resonate,” he said in an Ames, Iowa, bar crowded with Iowa State university football fans cheering the team’s televised exploits.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich stunned a packed audience in a coffee shop here by choking back tears as he recalled his mother’s illness and death in a rare display of emotion from the erstwhile back-bench bomb-thrower.
And Representative Ron Paul of Texas, running neck and neck to Romney in Iowa, defended the anti-government views and full-throated denunciations of overseas US military action that other candidates have condemned as “dangerous”. Experts believe Paul may also pick the votes of some Democrats disillusioned with Obama.
“Ron Paul has a lot going for him, particularly in the economic area,” said John Long, a retired accountant and registered Democrat, who argues Obama has failed to reform Washington.
Long said Paul was “principled enough not to say stuff just to get elected”.
Texas Governor Rick Perry and Representative Michele Bachmann also stumped in Iowa, while former US China envoy Jon Huntsman wooed voters in New Hampshire, which holds its nominating primary on January 10.