Rick Perry goes after Romney, Obama

COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry, campaigning Tuesday in South Carolina, accused Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney of scavenging small businesses.

Perry was the only candidate to head south while everyone else in the GOP field was focused on the New Hampshire primary, the Los Angeles Times reported. Speaking at Sun City, a retirement community in Fort Mill, he attacked the former Massachusetts governor's record as head of Bain Capital.

"They're vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for the company to get sick, and then they sweep in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton," Perry told about 100 residents.

Bain helped put South Carolinians out of work at a company making photo albums in Gaffney and a steel plant in Georgetown, Perry said.

Perry went after President Obama as well. In an appearance at a diner in Rock Hill, he said the administration had gone to "war" against South Carolina by challenging the state's voter identification law. At Sun City, he said Obama's top advisers are Wall Streeters who have done little to stop financial "inside dealing."