Romney takes Nevada, now clearly in front

Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came one step close to the GOP nomination with a win in Nevada on Saturday. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a runaway winner of the Nevada caucuses.

In his victory speech, the Republican presidential candidate focused on President Barack Obama and what Romney called his failed policies.

Romney said he’d walked through damaged Nevada neighborhoods “blighted by abandoned homes.” He called Obama’s policies “misguided” and claimed while the official unemployment rate was pegged at just over eight-percent for January the “real” jobless rate is closer to 15 percent. He suggested America not settle for a president who says “things could be worse.”

The Republican said his campaign is about saving America and that he wants to “restore the founding principals that made this country great.” Romney promised an enthusiastic crowd of supporters that as president, he’d balance the federal budget without raising taxes and “get America working again.”

The governor said he’d spend more time worrying about people’s jobs than about keeping his own and again he promised to repeal “Obamacare.”

Romney said while Obama seems to think America’s role of leading the world is a thing of the past, he believes the 21st century “will be and must be an American century.” Romney challenged Americans to think about the reasons our ancestors came to America. He said it wasn’t for a “free ticket,” it was for “freedom, not for the pursuit of government benefits, it was for the pursuit of happiness.”

The next primaries and caucuses come Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.