US Politics / Maxliu / 11 January 2012 /

Victory in second primray puts Romney on the path to nomination. But rivals might yet spring a surprise in South Carolina...

Mitt Romney trades at [1.18] to be the Republican presidential nominee after he became the first non-incumbent GOP candidate to win both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

Romney cruised to victory in the New England state which borders Massachusetts, where he used to be a senator. Opponents dismissed the victory as one which occurred in his "own back yard" but the market leader used his victory speech as an opportunity to criticise Barack Obama, the man he hopes to challenge for the presidency in November.

Ultra-conservative Ron Paul [22.0] achieved a strong second place finish but it was a bad night for John Huntsman [44.0] who was hoping do better than third. Rick Santorum, who lost to Romney by only eight votes in Iowa failed to make an impact and his odds have drifted from [9.8] to [28.0] in the last week.

However, Romney's rivals have good reasons to believe they can run him closer in South Carolina on January 21. It's a deeply conservative state where Santorum and Paul's values could play well and, even though at [1.27] Romney is favourite to win, Paul and others will be believe they can make serious headway over the next ten days.

After two primaries, Barack Obama remains favourite to win the election at [1.84] with Romney trading at [2.68].

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