Washington:Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is leading among all Republican Presidential aspirants ahead of the key Iowa Caucus next week, has stepped up his attack on President Barack Obama, saying he would be little more than ''a footnote'' in the U.S. history because of his ''poor'' decision-making.

Romney made the remarks while addressing a jam-packed restaurant in Iowa, which holds its crucial Caucuses meeting on January 3 that formally kicks off the rigorous process to elect a Republican candidate who would challenge Obama in the November elections later this year.

The former Governor said that Obama's "poor" decision-making ensured that he would be little more than a "footnote in history."

Romney has received further boost as the latest opinion poll by local DeS Moines Register said that he was leading among all the Republican Presidential hopefuls.

The poll, conducted this week, shows support at 24 percent for Romney, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul gets 22 percent. It also shows 15 percent support for Rick Santorum,a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

Among others, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives, who for weeks gave a tough fight to Romney, was now trailing with 12 percent.

Texas Governor Rick Perry had 11 percent support and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann figured in the poll with seven per cent support.

The Wall Street Journal said the attack on Obama shows the growing confidence of Romney that he is leading the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire -- the first two States in the selection process.

"I continue to think he's a nice guy; I think he's over his head," Romney told MSNBC in an interview. "I think the class warfare type of rhetoric poisons the notion of a united nation under God. I think that in some respects, we're substituting envy for ambition."
"I think the divisive approach has been unfortunate. I don't think it's in keeping with the kind of spirit the President offered when he was running for President," Romney said.
Addressing another meeting in Lemars, Iowa, he promised his supporters that he will make America the best place in the world imaginable for entrepreneurs and innovators and dreamers, people who want to start small businesses, people who want to expand big businesses.

"How will I do that? Well, one thing I'll do is make sure all the regulations that have been enacted during the Obama years are put on hold and then we'll get rid of the ones that kill jobs," Romney said. The Obama campaign was quick to respond. "Gov Romney didn't learn the lessons of the economic crisis. Instead, he has repackaged the same policies that caused it in the first place: letting Wall Street write its own rules again, and making the middle class foot the bill for more tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and large corporations."

Rick Santorum, whose sudden surge in this election campaign has surprised political analysts here, claimed that he is the best-positioned and most qualified Republican presidential hopeful to not just take on President Obama, but to take him on and win.
"This President believes that America is a broken model that America is - needs more government control and intervention, that we need to become more like Western Europe, we need more regulations," Santorum said at a campaign event in Knoxville, Iowa.
"You wonder why this economy is struggling and suffering? It's because this President is crushing it. And that's why we need to have someone who can go out with a plan, like mine, which I'm going to repeal every one of those regulations. You can't repeal every law, but a President can repeal regulations.

"Some we'll repeal completely, others we'll repeal and replace with less costly alternatives, so we can work with the business communities, so we can be competitive, so we can create jobs," he said.

In fact, five of the top seven Republican aspirants were addressing meetings across Iowa yesterday.

"Obama really is sort of a classic Saul Alinsky radical whose basic ideas are the opposite of what we need to create jobs, which is why in the fall, if I'm your candidate, one of our major themes will be food stamps versus paychecks, and the fact (is) that Obama is the best food stamp resident in history," alleged Newt Gingrich at a campaign event in Atlantic, Iowa.

At a campaign event in Boone, Iowa, Perry said: "I want to be the anti-establishment candidate that goes to Washington, DC and represents your values. And I want to go and be there with a sense of purpose. And that purpose will be to make Washington, DC, as inconsequential in your life as I can make it every day."