Mitt Romney, the multimillionaire former governor of Massachusetts, has kicked off his second bid for the White House, saying that ‘Barack Obama has failed America’ by spending too much and not protecting jobs.
With unemployment high and the housing market still soft, the economy is President Barack Obama's main weakness, although polls say he is still favoured over all potential Republican opponents.
The Republican front-runner so far, Mr Romney blamed Mr Obama for the job losses and home foreclosures that have plagued Americans during the Democratic president's first term.
‘From my first day in office my number one job will be to see that America once again is number one in job creation,’ Mr Romney said, flanked by hay bales at a New Hampshire farm.
Job figures due out on Friday are likely to show little improvement in an unemployment rate that has hovered around 9% for months.
Despite Mr Obama's economic troubles, the Republican field is seen as weak with many party heavyweights staying out of the race.
Republican Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, is running close to Mr Romney in some polls.
She arrived in New Hampshire later yesterday as part of a bus tour that has encouraged speculation that she will soon announce her own White House bid.
Reporters flocked after Ms Palin as she headed for a ‘clambake’ seafood cook-out only a few miles away from Mr Romney's event.
She said her presence in the state was coincidental and not aimed at overshadowing her potential rival.
Mr Romney needs to win February's primary election in this early-voting state to anchor his chance of winning the party nomination to face Mr Obama in the November 2012 election.
Mr Romney, who lost the Republican nomination to John McCain in the 2008 race, has a slimmer campaign team this time around, but the former head of venture capital firm Bain Capital has a powerful campaign finance apparatus in place.
He raised an astounding $10.25m in an eight-hour phone-a-thon in Las Vegas last month.
Mr Romney's biggest stumbling block could be his support as governor for a Massachusetts healthcare programme that became a model for Mr Obama's national healthcare overhaul.
Many Republicans detest what they call ‘Obamacare.’
On Thursday, Mr Romney repeated his pledge to repeal Obama's reforms, should he be elected president.
Americans are also concerned about federal spending, the mounting national debt and a budget deficit projected to reach $1.4 trillion this year.
‘Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free-market economy,’ said Mr Romney.
‘Barack Obama has failed America,’ he claimed.
