Mitt Romney's rivals have one more chance to bruise the front-runner for Republican presidential nominee in New Hampshire during a Sunday morning faceoff, just hours after he largely brushed aside their criticism in the opening round of a weekend debate doubleheader. The six hopefuls are set to spar one final time before voters go to the polls Tuesday in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary. They met onstage in nearby Manchester less than 12 hours earlier. That Saturday night contest left Romney's rivals squabbling among themselves and unable to knock him off stride. Romney, in turn, largely ignored his fellow Republicans and focused instead on President Barack Obama. “His policies have made the recession deeper and his policies have made the recovery more tepid,” he said, despite a declining unemployment rate and the creation of 200,000 jobs last month. Over the course of the lively 90-minute debate, there were attacks aplenty as Romney's Republican opponents vied to emerge as his principal rival in the primaries ahead. Romney won an eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses last Tuesday and is far ahead in the pre-primary polls in New Hampshire. That leaves his pursuers little time to stop his rise and, all but conceding New Hampshire to the former governor of next-door Massachusetts, they're mostly focusing their efforts on the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21. Romney, who often touts his business background, was attacked in the opening minutes of the debate. Rick Santorum went first, dismissing him as a mere manager. “Being a president is not a CEO. You've got to lead and inspire,” he said. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Romney should be judged on the basis of whether “on balance, were people better off or worse off by this style of management.”
