WASHINGTON – Now is the time for Mitt Romney to mend his Republican fences and bring around those dubious voters who kept spurning him for Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and others to the right. After a nasty primary battle, his challenge is to somehow excite the party’s staunchest conservatives without alienating the independent voters he’ll need to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall.

Romney predicted Wednesday that Republicans will rally together against their common foe, Obama, and focus on their shared distress about the nation’s economy.

To smooth the way, party leaders are moving quickly to close ranks, piling on more Romney endorsements after Santorum quit the field Tuesday. It’s unclear whether that will be enough to dispense with some voters’ worries, stoked by Romney’s primary season rivals, that he’s an “Etch A Sketch” conservative eager to shift to the center and abandon the conservative base.