Trying to take the mantle as frontrunner in the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney targeted President Obama on Thursday in their race to win New Hampshire voters while Newt Gingrich targeted the frontrunners, by intentional insults or not.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is reaching for a decisive victory next Tuesday in New Hampshire to solidify his standing. At a morning stop in Salem before heading to South Carolina, Romney labeled Obama a "crony capitalist," invoking a theme that Rep. Michele Bachmann had used before dropping out of the race.

Santorum, under new scrutiny after a strong showing in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, offered himself as "the conservative alternative" to Romney and claimed he's got the momentum to propel his campaign beyond New Hampshire.

"Our office is buzzing," Santorum said after an appearance in Manchester. "We're the folks that people are getting excited about." He dismissed Obama as "a president who doesn't understand us."

Gingrich, the former House speaker, trained his sights on Romney in a his first TV ad in the state in which he sized up his rival's economic plan as "virtually identical to Obama's failed policy."

But he also gave a dismissive assessment of Santorum when asked to size up the former Pennsylvania senator, saying that "in historical terms, he would be a junior partner"...