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January 11, 2012 | | VICTORY New Hampshire—check! After a squeaker in Iowa, Mitt Romney took New Hampshire's primary by a much more comfortable margin, with nearly 40 percent of the vote. Ron Paul finished second with about 23 percent, while Jon Huntsman claimed that his 17 percent showing gave him a "ticket to ride" to South Carolina. Romney spent much of his victory speech hammering President Obama, only mentioning his "desperate" Republican rivals briefly. Is he a lock for the nomination? Howard Kurtz, Paul Begala, Michelle Goldberg, and more Daily Beast columnists weigh in. Plus, videos from primary night and more breaking updates on Election Beast. INFIGHTING Mitt Romney's campaign was as surprised as Sean Hannity and John Sununu to hear Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry decrying free-market capitalism and attacking Mitt Romney as a corporate raider for his time as a venture capitalist at his old firm, Bain. Matt Rhoades, Romney's campaign manager, worries that the attacks will hurt Romney's favorability rating, especially in South Carolina, with its many shuttered businesses and suspicion of corporate elites. At the same time, the attacks are uniting some conservatives around Romney. Sen. Jim DeMint, speaking after Romney gave his acceptance speech, said, "Frankly, I'm a little concerned about the few Republicans who have criticized some of what I consider the free-market principles here."
REBUKE The U.S. and France decried Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's speech on Tuesday—his first since June—in which he blamed the country's unrest on "foreign planning" and vowed to fight "terrorists with an iron fist." A spokeswoman for the U.S. state department said Assad had thrown "responsibility on everybody but back on himself," adding that the nearly two-hour long speech "confirmed our view that it is time for him to step aside." France's foreign minister concurred that the Assad's rare statement was a "denial of reality." An Arab League monitoring team has done little to stem violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since security forces began cracking down on demonstrations 10 months ago.
TENSE An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a magnetic bomb placed on his car, an attack Tehran's deputy governor blamed on Israel. The state news agency said the scientist "supervised a department at Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility." Tensions between Iran, the U.S., and Israel have been high for months, but they were ratcheted up yet again last week when the country announced its plan to carry out enrichment work in a fortified underground facility near Qom. Meanwhile Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, visiting Beijing, asked China to help sanction Iran.
LENIENT Facing a scandal about pardoning five people? How about pardoning 193 more. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi pardoned 193 criminals on his last day in office. It's an unusually high number for the state—Barbour's predecessor pardoned only one person, and the governor before him pardoned 13. Furthermore, Barbour is already under fire for pardoning five convicted murderers last week who had worked in the governor's mansion, performing odd jobs like waiting tables, something allowed under Mississippi law. One of them had been turned down for parole the day before. Barbour pardoned 17 convicted murderers over the course of his career.
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