The Des Moines Register on Saturday endorsed Mitt Romney, citing his “wisdom, sobriety and judgment.”

The editorial board of Iowa’s highest-circulated newspaper noted that it didn’t back the former Massachusetts governor in his last run four years ago, but argued “this is a different field, and he has matured as a candidate. Rebuilding the economy is the nation’s top priority, and Romney makes the best case among the Republicans that he could do that.”

The editorial went on at length to defend Romney against some of the attacks against him, paying particular attention to the charge that the candidate has flip-flopped on issues.

“Though Romney has tended to adapt some positions to different times and places, he is hardly unique. It should be possible for a politician to say, ‘I was wrong, and I have changed my mind.’”

Until recently, Romney hadn’t been focusing as much attention on the state this year as in the 2008 cycle. But he’s stepped up his appearances there in the closing weeks before the Jan. 3 caucus, as Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have been demonstrating increased strength there.

The Register took time out from expressing its support of Romney to blast those two.

“Newt Gingrich is an undisciplined partisan who would alienate, not unite, if he reverts to mean-spirited attacks on display as House speaker. Ron Paul’s libertarian ideology would lead to economic chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford,” the editorial board wrote.

But while the endorsement provides the Romney campaign an additional show of support ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses in a fluid race that’s now on its fifth frontrunner in state polls, the newspaper hasn’t always been successful in swaying voters in the first-caucus state. Seen as a liberal-leaning editorial board, the state’s largest paper tends to carry more weight in Democratic primaries.

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