Democrats sharpen attacks on Mitt Romney

MILWAUKEE (AP) — President Barack Obama's administration launched a multi-front assault on Mitt Romney's values and foreign policy credentials, while a fresh set of prominent Republicans rallied behind the party's likely presidential nominee, further signs the general election is overtaking the primary season.

A Romney victory in Tuesday's Republican primary in Wisconsin could all but end the battle to pick a challenger to Obama in the November election.

The former Massachusetts governor is predicting success in the upper Midwestern state as he shifts his campaign attacks almost solely to Obama and away from fellow Republicans.

Obama, who was vulnerable in his bid for a second White House term because of the ravages left behind by the Great Recession and near national financial meltdown just before he took office, has seen his prospects improve somewhat as a result of the Republican nomination fight and signs the economy is in a sustained recovery.

Even as Romney looked ever more likely to win the nomination, a defiant Rick Santorum vowed to stay in the race, saying he would not give up just because the Republican party establishment believed voters "need Mitt Romney shoved down their throats."

The Wisconsin vote will be Santorum's last chance to prove his strength in the U.S. heartland, where he's said he can challenge Obama but where Romney has beaten him consistently.

But having devoted more than a week to campaigning across Wisconsin, Santorum is scheduled to return to his home state, Pennsylvania, the day before the Wisconsin contest. Pennsylvania's primary is more than three weeks away. It's an indication that the conservative favorite may be in retreat.

With Romney marching steadily toward clinching the nomination before the party's convention in late August in Tampa, Florida, Republican leaders increasingly are calling for a quick end to what has become an extended and politically messy nomination battle.

"I think the chances are overwhelming that (Romney) will be our nominee," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." ''It seems to me we're in the final phases of wrapping up this nomination. And most of the members of the Senate Republican conference are either supporting him, or they have the view that I do, that it's time to turn our attention to the fall campaign and begin to make the case against the president of the United States."

The Obama camp was not wasting any time in taking the attack to Romney. Both Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden went after Romney on Sunday.

"I think Gov. Romney's a little out of touch," Biden told CBS' "Face the Nation" in an interview broadcast Sunday. "I can't remember a presidential candidate in the recent past who seems not to understand, by what he says, what ordinary middle-class people are thinking about and are concerned about."

The line of attack is likely to play prominently in the Obama campaign's general election narrative. While Obama is a millionaire, Romney, the former CEO of a private equity firm, would be among the nation's wealthiest presidents ever elected. And he's opened himself to criticism through a series of missteps.

Romney casually bet a rival $10,000 during a presidential debate, noted that his wife drives a "couple of Cadillacs," and lists owners of professional sports teams among his friends. His personal tax records show investments in the Cayman Islands and a Swiss bank account.

Obama's team on Sunday also seized on Romney's foreign policy inexperience.

Biden said Obama was "stating the obvious" when he told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more latitude on missile defense after the November general election. The two presidents did not realize the exchange, during a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, last weekend, was being picked up by an open microphone.

Romney called it "alarming" and part of a pattern of "breathtaking weakness" with America's foes. He asked what else Obama would be flexible on if he were to win a second term.

"Speaking of flexible, Gov. Romney's a pretty flexible guy on his positions," Biden said. Romney's Republican opponents have accused the former Massachusetts governor of "flip-flopping" on issues such as health care reform and abortion.

Clinton seized on Romney's comment that Russia is America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe," calling the statement "dated" and suggesting there were more pressing matters of concern in global affairs.

"I think it's somewhat dated to be looking backwards instead of being realistic about where we agree, where we don't agree," Clinton told CNN Sunday.

"He just seems to be uninformed or stuck in a Cold War mentality," Biden added. "It exposes how little the governor knows about foreign policy."

But the administration's comments may have been overshadowed Sunday by Romney's ballooning Republican support.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the influential chairman of the House Budget Committee, spent the weekend at Romney's side campaigning in his home state of Wisconsin, The state's first-term U.S. senator, Ron Johnson, endorsed Romney on Sunday.

"Let's show that this is the time to bring this process to an end so we can focus our attention on retiring President Obama,'" Johnson said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The senator joins a growing chorus of prominent Republicans calling for the party to coalesce behind Romney's candidacy. Romney also scored endorsements from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush, in recent days.

Santorum's senior staff outlined an increasingly unlikely path to victory that depends upon hypothetical success more than a month away.

"May is going to be a good month for us," Santorum campaign manager Mike Biundo said, looking ahead to races in Texas and other southern states where Santorum has fared well. "The race goes on."

Santorum, whose main appeal has been to religious conservatives wary of Romney's past moderate policies on abortion and gay rights, was publicly defiant Sunday.

"Look, this race isn't even at halftime yet," he told "Fox News Sunday." He said Romney "hasn't been able to close the deal with conservatives, much less anybody else in this party. And that's not going to be an effective tool for us to win this election."

Trying to be upbeat, Santorum dismissed Romney's growing support as reflecting "panic" in the Republican establishment.

But with losses piling up for in other industrial states like Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, Santorum acknowledged the results in Wisconsin on Tuesday will send a "strong signal" about the direction of the Republican contest. Maryland and Washington, D.C. also hold contests that day.

With about half of the state-by-state Republican nominating contests complete, Romney has won 54 percent of the delegates at stake, putting him on track to reach the threshold 1,144 national convention delegates in June. Santorum, who has won 27 percent of the delegates at stake, would need to win 74 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination.