Mitt Romney made a leap toward winning the Republican presidential nomination with a clean sweep of three primaries and trained his sights on Obama as his flagging Republican rivals vowed to fight on
Mitt Romney made a leap toward winning the Republican presidential nomination with a clean sweep of Wisconsin and tw
o other primaries on Tuesday and trained his sights on President Barack Obama as his flagging Republican rivals vowed to fight on.
Romney thumped main rival Rick Santorum in Maryland and the US capital Washington on Tuesday, and won a tighter but more important race in Wisconsin, US media projected, in a pivotal night for the party's frontrunner.
"We won them all! This really has been quite a night," Romney told supporters in Wisconsin, where he won by nearly five percentage points. "We've won a great victory tonight in our campaign to restore the promise of America," he said.
Romney's opponents remained undaunted, however, with Santorum insisting the Republican race to see who will challenge President Barack Obama in November was merely at "halftime."
But Santorum must feel the sting of a loss in Wisconsin, where he campaigned heavily over the last week. With nearly 100 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 43 percent of the vote to Santorum's 38 percent.
Tuesday appeared to mark the start of a new phase in Romney's campaign, as he turns his full attention to challenging Obama in November. He is already acting like the nominee, training his political fire on Obama's "government-centered society" and no longer mentioning his Republican rivals on the campaign trail.
Obama also appeared to step into campaign mode on Tuesday, rebuking Romney by name in a speech and calling him to account for supporting a "radical" budget passed by congressional conservatives last week.
Obama accused Romney of championing cutthroat "social Darwinism" that neglects the middle class and favors the wealthy, and said the Republican candidate is seeking to institute such a budget on "day one of his presidency."
Romney fired back, signaling his eagerness to square off with Obama. "There's no question that under this president, this recovery has been the most tepid, the most weak, the most painful since the beginning of our recorded economic history," Romney said on the Sean Hannity radio show.
