Romney eyes decisive ‘boost’ in Iowa vote

Republican presidential hopefuls made eleventh-hour pitches to Iowa voters yesterday, each seeking a decisive “boost” on the eve of the first contest of this year’s election campaign. Mitt Romney - who portrays himself as the strongest candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November elections - has retaken a thin lead in the heartland state before Iowans cast the first ballots of the Republican nominating process today. “I can’t tell you who’s going to win this thing,” the former Massachusetts governor and millionaire venture capitalist said after chatting and shaking hands with scores of people in a packed diner here. “But I do believe that I’m going to have a great deal of support and that that will give me the kind of boost I need as I go into a season of (contests in) a number of other states,” he said. “This is a process that begins here.” Romney has made plain that he hopes a strong showing in the nominating caucuses here - coupled with a victory in New Hampshire a week later - could help him lock up the nomination early in the process of picking a standard-bearer. But with four in 10 Iowans telling pollsters they could still change their minds, veteran Texas Representative Ron Paul stood within striking distance of Romney. “I may come in first, I may come in second. I doubt I’ll come in third or fourth,” Paul, known for anti-interventionist and libertarian views that have drawn heavy fire from his rivals for the party’s nomination, told CNN. And firebrand social conservative Rick Santorum’s support was surging as Iowa’s evangelical Christians seemed to be rallying behind the former senator from the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Sam Clovis, a conservative Iowa radio host who has endorsed Santorum, said he was “by far the most conservative candidate that we’ve had”. “More and more people are coming to Rick Santorum,” he added. The Des Moines Register newspaper’s final poll before the caucus found Romney with 24% support, Paul at 22%, Santorum at 15 but rising, and 41% of likely voters saying they could still change their minds. The survey found 12% support for former House speaker Newt Gingrich, 11% for Texas Governor Rick Perry, and 7% for Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann. “Tuesday night people are going to see a miracle,” said Bachmann, whose long-shot hopes rest heavily on Iowa. “People make their decision, quite honestly, in the caucus room.” Experts believe she might have a point. According to the Des Moines Register poll, only 51% of Iowa voters have made up their mind about their preferences. “We are going to do good on Tuesday,” Perry said on Fox News Channel, deriding his rivals as “either Washington insiders or Wall Street insiders”. And Gingrich - whose support has plummeted in the face of a barrage of attack ads, many by a group backing Romney - took aim at the frontrunner, charging “he would buy an election if he could”. Romney scoffed, saying here the election “is not being driven by money raised, it’s being driven by message, connection with the voters, debates, experience”. After Iran defiantly declared it had tested a new medium-range missile and made a significant advance in its nuclear programme, Santorum told NBC television he would pummel Tehran’s nuclear sites with air strikes unless they are opened wide to international inspectors. And Romney said that the Iranian moves, sure to stoke flaring tensions between Tehran and Washington, showed Obama “has failed us in dealing with the greatest threat we face, which comes from Iran”. Iowans gather today in hundreds of precincts across the state, meeting in school cafeterias, church buildings and other spots to vote after hearing speeches from their neighbors on behalf of the candidates. Unpredictable Iowa - where unemployment is well below the national average - is also an unreliable predictor of presidential fortunes: Senator John McCain, the eventual nominee in 2008, came in fourth that year.