Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican party's 2012 presidential nomination, made a potentially damaging gaffe by promising in a speech to 'hang' Barack Obama.

Mr Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, made the comment while recalling the so-called "misery index" that Ronald Reagan used to attack Jimmy Carter's economic record in the United States in the 1980.

Mr Reagan had "hung that around Jimmy Carter's neck", Mr Romney said.

"Well, we're going to have to hang the 'Obama Misery Index' around his neck".

"Housing foreclosures and bankruptcies and higher taxation: we're going to hang him with that," Mr Romney said, stopping mid-sentence. "So to speak – metaphorically," he added.

"You have to be careful these days."
Source: Tele