Prez targets Mitt, as do GOP rivals

Obama's team has castigated Romney at every turn as a political opportunist willing to alter his views - on abortion, the environment and gay marriage - to serve his political purpose.

Obama's campaign had hauled in more than $150 million through September, but Democrats say they will need to compete with Republican-leaning outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to back specific candidates.

For his part, Romney swept into South Carolina yesterday in pursuit of a confirming victory in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, buoyed by bulging campaign coffers and warm words from the state's pre-eminent practitioner of tea-party politics.

Running out of time, his GOP rivals showed no sign of surrender.

Newt Gingrich welcomed Romney into the first Southern primary state with a fresh attack on his business career and a new television ad painting him as a flip-flopper on abortion. Said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, "South Carolina is going to be different. It is wide open for anyone."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry drawled his way through a busy campaign day, displaying a Southern attribute that Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, could not hope to match.