<i>Romney gets McCain's backing after Iowa win</i>

Mitt Romney took fresh fire Wednesday from his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, but also nabbed an endorsement from top Senator John McCain as the 2012 campaign moved to New Hampshire.
Romney won the first battle in the 2012 White House race in dramatic fashion on Wednesday, wresting Iowa from devout Christian conservative Rick Santorum by just eight votes.
McCain, who beat Romney for the party's 2008 nod but fell to President Barack Obama, told voters here that they had a chance to help the former Massachusetts governor virtually wrap up the nominating fight in their January 10 primary.
A big win here would give Romney's campaign "such momentum that it cannot be stopped," then carry the candidate through South Carolina's January 21 primary and "get this thing over with, get the real contest going," the Arizona lawmaker declared.
Romney, who enjoys a vast lead in New Hampshire, was to head to South Carolina yesterday to campaign with McCain and Nikki Haley, the state's first woman governor and just the second Indian-American US state governor ever.
"This president we have now is over his head when guiding this country," said Romney, who was invigorated after winning Iowa's nominating caucus by a whisker. "I'll go to work getting Americans back to work."
But Romney still faced a fierce battle with his more conservative rivals for the right to take on Obama in the November 6 elections -- like former senator and Christian conservative Rick Santorum, whom he bested in Iowa by just eight votes out of more than 120,000 cast.
Fresh off his strong finish in Iowa, Santorum was greeted by a large crowd at a town hall here in New Hampshire, reflecting his newfound attention from voters and the news media.
Romney will also face former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who blamed attack ads by Romney and surrogates for his fourth-place finish in Iowa. Gingrich aimed to put up TV ads attacking Romney in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.
At a stop in Laconia, New Hampshire, Gingrich questioned Romney's conservative credentials, calling him out of step with Republican icon Ronald Reagan and charging he "accommodated liberalism" as governor.