Mitt Romney reached out to conservatives suspicious of him and sought to assert himself as the inevitable Republican US presidential nominee on Wednesday, despite failing to deliver a knockout blow to his rivals in the biggest round of nominating contests.
Romney won in six of the 10 states holding "Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses, including a narrow victory in the most closely watched contest in Ohio. But rival Rick Santorum won in three states and Newt Gingrich captured one, raising the chances that the divisive Republican fight could drag on for months. The results firmed up Romney's front-runner status for the party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 US election. But the strong showing by Santorum underscored Romney's continued inability to win over large swathes of the Republican base, who question the moderate former Massachusetts governor's conservative credentials.
"When we have a nominee we will come together because Barack Obama has organised the conservative community," Romney told CNBC. "We're going to come together because we really believe that he needs to be replaced." Romney's margin of victory was uncomfortably slim in Ohio, the night's biggest prize. Unlike some previous presidential campaigns, this year's "Super Tuesday" outcome failed to anoint a nominee.
Despite that, Romney hailed his Super Tuesday performance as a success and sought to dispel speculation among dissatisfied Republicans about new candidates jumping into the race or a brokered party nominating convention in Tampa, Florida, in August. He tempered his words with caution, seeming to acknowledge the long battle still ahead for the nomination, and avoided bashing his Republican opponents, focusing instead on Obama.
Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, said his victories in Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota proved he was the best candidate to represent the party's conservative philosophy. "In every state we overcame the odds," Santorum told supporters, noting that he had been consistently outspent by his rivals throughout the campaign.
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