CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican front-runner Mitt Romney emerged on Sunday from back-to-back debates in New Hampshire a bit dinged but not seriously dented as rivals stepped up attacks to slow his march toward the presidential nomination.

Two days before voters in the small New England state head to the polls for the first 2012 primary election, Romney took heat on a number of topics: his record as governor of neighboring Massachusetts, the attack ads run by an outside group on his behalf and a suggestion he would wither in the face of attacks from Democratic President Barack Obama.

One by one, the contenders lined up to fire on the former venture capitalist in a surprisingly heated debate after they largely left Romney alone Saturday night. But there was little to suggest he had suffered any setback in New Hampshire, where he is heavily favored to win.

“Romney was dinged in the second debate, but not seriously wounded,” said Larry Sabato, political analyst at the University of Virginia. “Basically, the candidates firmed up their own individual base but I don’t think they took much away from Romney either in terms of Republicans or independents.”

Slowing Romney’s momentum has taken on new urgency in the face of polls showing he is also favored in the South Carolina primary on January 21, despite being seen as less socially conservative as his competitors in the church-going southern state.

Although Romney’s win in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday was an eight-vote squeaker over Rick Santorum, backing it up with a win in New Hampshire would be a feat never achieved by a Republican candidate who is not an incumbent, adding to a sense of inevitability about his candidacy.

The online exchange InTrade, which takes bets on the outcomes of events such as elections, now shows Romney with an 83 percent chance of winning the Republican nomination to run against Obama in the fall.

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidates were given one last chance to pounce on front-runner Mitt Romney in a televised debate on Sunday, just two days before voters in New Hampshire head to the polls.

Attacks on Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, were teed up in the NBC/Facebook debate in Concord, New Hampshire, when other candidates were asked whether Romney would be able to defeat President Barack Obama.

Wasting no time, former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said Romney would “have a very hard time getting elected.”

“There’s a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and somebody who comes out of the Massachusetts culture who essentially has a moderate record,” Gingrich said.

Opinion polls show Romney holds a wide lead in New Hampshire, which holds its first in the nation primary election on Tuesday, and also leads in South Carolina, the next state in the nominating process.

“If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn’t he run for re-election,” Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, said of Romney, who launched his unsuccessful 2008 White House bid just weeks after leaving the statehouse after one term.

Santorum has been riding a wave of popularity after a narrow second-place finish to Romney in the first Republican presidential nominating contest in Iowa last week.

GOFFSTOWN, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican Mitt Romney fended off a few attacks on his business record on Saturday and sailed through a high-stakes debate that his rivals used to jockey for position as his conservative alternative in the race for the White House.

Expected to be a punching bag, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts with a big lead in New Hampshire got a major break as his main rivals stopped short of going all-out negative against him and instead squabbled among themselves.

This leaves Romney in a strong position in New Hampshire, where polls show him winning the primary handily on Tuesday. That would put more pressure on his rivals to try to stop him at the next contest in South Carolina, where he also has a small lead.

Looking cool and confident with hands in his pockets, Romney repeatedly positioned himself above the fray. He stuck to lines from his campaign stump speech and trained fire on the man he wants to replace in November’s election, Democratic President Barack Obama.

“I don’t want to be critical of the people on this stage,” Romney said at the first of two back-to-back debates that represent the last chance to sway large numbers of voters before New Hampshire votes in its Republican primary on Tuesday.

A similar performance at a second debate in Concord on Sunday will help him close the deal in New Hampshire and put him in a strong position in South Carolina on January 21, where a victory could give him a virtual lock on the Republican presidential nomination.

For the most part the debate was about the battle for second place in New Hampshire and for the conservative vote in South Carolina, where Romney’s rivals hope to slow him down.

GOFFSTOWN, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican rivals tried to knock front-runner Mitt Romney off his pedestal by questioning his record as a business executive on Saturday at a high-stakes debate days before the key New Hampshire primary election.

Conservatives Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich wasted little time in attacking Romney at an ABC News debate, seeking to stop the former Massachusetts governor from running away with New Hampshire and possibly getting set to win the Republican nomination to run for U.S. president in November’s election.

At the first of twin debates within 12 hours of each other, Romney calmly fended off his attackers and quietly let them squabble among themselves in a sign he was trying to appear statesman-like and the inevitable winner.

For the most part, Romney kept his sights on Democratic President Barack Obama’s handling of the U.S. economy and foreign policy and attempted to make no mistakes that would endanger his lead.

“I don’t want to be critical of the people on this stage,” Romney said. “This president must be replaced.”

Needing to make a move was Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who rose as a conservative alternative to Romney by almost beating him in Iowa’s caucuses last Tuesday.

Santorum said just because Romney has business experience does not mean he is qualified to serve as president.

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman and members of his family expressed outrage on Friday at an advertisement targeted at his adopted daughters by a group supporting rival Ron Paul.

An online ad authored by “NHLiberty4Paul” shows footage of Huntsman with daughters Gracie, who was adopted from China, and Asha, adopted from India, when they were infants.

“American values. Or Chinese,” the ad asks to a soundtrack of Chinese music. It calls Huntsman “the Manchurian Candidate” and ends with an image of Huntsman dressed as China’s former communist leader Mao Zedong, and the words “Vote Ron Paul.”

Paul, a Texas congressman, disavowed the ad during an interview on Friday on CNN, but said he could not control the actions of all his supporters.

“I couldn’t even hear it, haven’t looked at it, but people do that, and they do it in all campaigns,” Paul said.

At a campaign appearance in Concord, New Hampshire, Huntsman, who was U.S. ambassador to China until April before jumping into the Republican race, termed the ad “just stupid” and “political campaign nonsense.”

“If someone wants to poke fun at me, that’s OK,” said Huntsman, who trails in most polls in the Republican nominating contest. “What I object to is bringing forward pictures and videos of my adopted daughters and suggesting there’s something sinister there.”

/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sudden rise of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who has emphasized his Christian faith on the campaign trail, is threatening to draw front-runner Mitt Romney into difficult territory – the culture wars.

Romney has talked about job creation on a daily basis, bashed Democratic President Barack Obama relentlessly, and cast himself as an experienced businessman who can fix the economy since launching his second bid for the White House in June.

He has steered far away from divisive social issues like abortion and gay marriage, which have the potential to raise uncomfortable questions about his apparent shifts in position since first running for public office in the mid-1990s and when serving as governor of Massachusetts.

The emergence of former senator Santorum this month as a conservative contender in the race for the Republican presidential nomination to face Obama in the November 6 election, may bring social topics to the forefront.

Romney, the favorite candidate of establishment Republicans, is seen as having the best chance of defeating Obama.

He must overcome the discomfort of some conservative voters, particularly evangelical Christians, with his Mormon religion. For example, prominent evangelical Christian pastor Robert Jeffress, while praising Romney rival Rick Perry in October as “a committed follower of Christ,” described Mormonism as a cult.

Santorum, a Roman Catholic and father of seven, has routinely emphasized his home-schooled children and opposition to gay marriage. The strategy paid off, as he vaulted from the back of the Republican pack at just the right time.

SALEM/MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republicans hoping to be chosen to run against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election blasted him on Thursday for bypassing Congress to fill politically sensitive posts.

He upset Republicans by making four recess appointments – naming Richard Cordray to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Board and filling three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board.

Republican politicians who fanned out around New Hampshire to campaign ahead of next Tuesday’s primary election criticized Obama for bypassing constitutional procedure and not waiting for Congress to approve the nominees.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney labeled Obama as a “crony capitalist” in an attack where he said the president had stacked the labor board with “union stooges.”

“This president is a crony capitalist. He’s a job killer. This president has engaged and is engaging in crony capitalism,” said Romney, a former venture capitalist who made a fortune buying and restructuring companies – often closing plants and offices in the process.

“It scares away real entrepreneurs,” Romney said. “We don’t want crony capitalists running our country.”

He pointed to Obama’s move to assign three people to the NLRB – bringing the five-member board to full strength for the first time in two years – as an example.