US election 2012: Mitt Romney on course for historic double victory While Mr Romney is polling 20 percentage points clear of the field in New Hampshire, the final major poll in Iowa showed over the weekend that his lead there is slimmer. He has 24 per cent of support, according to a rigorous survey by the Des Moines Register newspaper, whose pre-caucus forecasts have been notably accurate in previous election years. Ron Paul, a libertarian Texas congressman, is second with 22 per cent while Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, follows with 15 per cent and has rising support, according to the survey. Amid America's ongoing economic woe, Mr Romney has convinced many Iowans that he above all others knows how to lift the US out of the doldrums. "Obama has no idea about business," said Kevin Kinzler, the 55-year-old owner of a construction firm in Ames that hosted a Romney rally last week. Romney would stop making it tougher for us to exist. Despite having been a politician for 18 years, Mr Romney has enjoyed success with his claim to be the outsider sought by voters whose approval of Washington is at historically low levels. "I don't want politicians running America anymore," Mr Romney told a crowd in West Des Moines last week. I want to make sure that we have citizen leaders going to Washington, leading this country. Much depends on the choices made by Iowa's undecided voters. In line with other surveys, the Des Moines Register poll found that 41 per cent of likely caucus-goers may change their mind on Tuesday. At the Ames rally, Bobbi Thompson, 63, and her husband Dean, 64, who like Mr Romney are Mormon, told The Daily Telegraph that they would caucus for the former Massachusetts governor. "He will tell us the truth," said Mrs Thompson. "He is strong across most issues," said her husband. Yet on Saturday they were in the audience of a rally for Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, 15 miles away in Boone, wearing "Perry - President" stickers. "Perry is right up my alley," said Mrs Thompson. Like more than a dozen Republicans who spoke to The Daily Telegraph over the past week, Merle Garman, a 75-year-old retiree, said that he had little enthusiasm for Mr Romney but may end up backing him as the best prospect of ousting Mr Obama. "We are in deep trouble over here," said Mr Garman. Anyone would be better than the socialist we have now. An aggregate of hypothetical polls pitting Mr Romney against Mr Obama by RealClearPolitics currently shows the president ahead by 1.6 percentage points.