Romney to kick off general election fight Tuesday night in New Hampshire
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
(CBS News) In the ten months since Mitt Romney launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on a farm in New Hampshire, his campaign has experienced highs and lows. Back in the Granite State on Tuesday night, he'll come full circle as his campaign seeks to end the primary season and launch the general election fight.
He won't yet have the 1,144 delegates needed to officially clinch the nomination, but after five northeastern states cast their ballots today, Romney's campaign is expecting to have won a large enough amount of delegates to claim the mantle of presumptive Republican nominee.
"We're bringing the nomination process to a close, and will kick off the general election," said Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the Romney campaign.
According to CBS News estimates, Romney currently has 688 delegates, and even if he were to win each of the 219 at stake on Tuesday, it could likely still be another month before he clinches enough to be assured of the nomination. The campaign is not waiting, however.
"We're getting ready to enter Phase Two," said New Hampshire senior adviser Jim Merrill. The significance of such a transition is not lost on Merrill, who has been working the ground for Romney in the Granite State for years. "It feels right to come back to New Hampshire where we started this thing."
Romney's current bid for the White House began on June 2, 2011 on Scamman Farm in Stafford, N.H., and the campaign considers his return Tuesday as a full circle moment for the candidate who beat the other six candidate running at the time with over 97,000 votes cast in his favor on January 10.
There was no primary state where Romney spent more time campaigning and getting face time with residents - sometimes holding multiple rallies town halls, and meet-and-greets in one day. During one December day where he, his wife Ann, and son Tagg hopscotched across the state for seven events on a single Thursday, a man stopped him on the street in Lancaster and gleefully remarked that only at that moment had Romney clinched his vote, telling him "I've never voted for anyone I didn't shake hands with."
The campaign adopted the motto "Earn it" in New Hampshire and promptly pounced on any other candidates who tried to make a play for the state. Rick Perry, who came to Concord in the fall with teeming masses of suited staffers flanking him to sign up for the ballot, did not receive a single delegate by the primary. Jon Huntsman, who moved into Manchester's Hilton Garden Inn for months and did over 100 campaign events throughout the state, only collected two. Rick Santorum, who was Romney's chief competitor until two weeks ago, had no presence in the state whatsoever and was virtually unknown to many there until after his surprise finish in the Iowa caucuses a week before.
But Romney is no longer the only serious campaign in town. On Monday evening, the University of New Hampshire released a new poll showing President Obama ahead of Romney 51 percent to 42 percent New Hampshire. Mr. Obama's re-election team is quick to point out that Romney's campaign cleared out of the state immediately following the primary - often noting that his bustling headquarters in Manchester went dark the next day.
Conversely, the president's team holds that they have been building an infrastructure that includes seven offices and counting. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama's campaign will hold nine different phone banking events across the state, and they have 21 other events -- phone banks, canvassing, and "pledge to vote"drives -- throughout the rest of the week.
They are also planning on launching a Twitter campaign on Tuesday, the day of Romney's return, called "Since Mitt's Been Gone," where they plan to tweet out multiple examples of initiatives they've taken up in New Hampshire without Romney there, such as hosting women-to-women house parties and talking about Mr. Obama's plans to strengthen the middle class.
In a statement coming out Tuesday morning, the Obama campaign's New Hampshire State Director Pete Kavanaugh writes: "Since Mitt Romney abandoned New Hampshire after January 10th, he's made numerous out of touch promises as he's collected Tea Party delegates across the country - promises that underscore the extreme conservative positions he has embraced, far out of the mainstream and out of line with Granite State values."
Williams disputes the notion that Romney's New Hampshire supporters have in any way been neglected, pointing out that many volunteers from the state fanned out to help in other primary contests, such as Maine, Vermont and Florida.
Additionally, Merrill pushes back on any claims that Romney is out of touch with New Hampshire voters.
"I would characterize what the Obama campaign says as nonsense, complete nonsense," he holds, pointing out that nearly 2,000 Democrats voted for Romney in the Republican primary this year. "That tells me something," he said.
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He is in way over his head with this one! His record shows that - crystal clear!. The first phone call he made as President of the of The United States was to the Palastinians. Authority, Abass. That should speak volumes in the public record.
You may want to have a beer with him. But trusting him to give security secrets to our enemies - no - no- no.
Through American history, the incumbent has lost mant more times than they have been re-elected - LOOK IT UP!!!
We have a WINNER! MITT ROMNEY!
Seriously, you fox/rush parrots really need a dose of reality for once!
General Election: Romney vs. Obama
National Journal...4/19 - 4/22........47....39.........Obama +8
Gallup Tracking....4/19 - 4/23........49....42.........Obama +7
NBC News/WSJ.......4/13 - 4/17........49....43.........Obama +6
Quinnipiac.........4/11 - 4/17........46....42.........Obama +4
CNN/Opinion Rsch...4/13 - 4/15........52....43.........Obama +9
Reuters/Ipsos......4/12 - 4/15........47....43.........Obama +4
Don't worry though, because I'm sure that fox and rush will keep giving you the endless right-wing propaganda and silly numbers, since they rally around your party of teabagging extremists and racists!
Polls change every day. Obama may attract the stupid but not those who are following his record of accomplishments. Which is almost ZERO. When voters start to realize that Obama is out for himself - these rating numbers will sky rocket to an honest man who has actually created private sector jobs and made payroll with private sector money. Opposed to squeezing the taxpayer. Don't buy this "we're trying to save the middle class". There will be no middle class if these corporations are taxed so heavily (the highest in the WORLD now) and they pack up and move to other countries. Then, who will pay for unemployment, or be hiring anyone, or fund the goverenment?
That IS where we're headed with O-Ba-Mao - as the Chinese workers refer to him. Can they see something we can't???
Lookie folks, the most lucid and intelligent comment EVER by danny boy!
More of that right-wing propaganda, spewed by the usual fox/rush parrots, unable to understand that the DMV or DVM is STATE-RUN, and different in each state.
Just because your state cannot run it properly, is your fault as much as any politician's fault, since YOU put them in charge!
The last time I had to renew my drivers' license after 11 years, I did it online with no hassle, and no waiting in line!
You fox/rush parrots simply amaze me every day with your nonsense!
Are you really defending the efficiency of government anywhere in the country? I only have a microcosm of what happens with the red tape of the US government. Do you have enough knowledge of how MANY pieces of legislation went into affect when the calendar flipped into 2012? The answer: over 40,000. If you knew that without having to look it up - my hat is off to you.
Most people don't VET anything or anyone, regardless of how much it will affect their everyday of their lives. Try doing that with Barry. Did you know he was marinated in communism by ""Uncle Frank" AKA FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS. Educate yourself and find how surprised you are about what you DON'T know!
Maybe when you start having to pay $60 per lightbulb - you'll open your mind...
Seriously, just because you can parrot the usual fox/rush propaganda, certainly does not make it true, since willard has the highest negatives in recent history, and the more Americans learn about him, the less they like him!
You're fooling nobody but yourself and your fellow republicans!
Romney faces high negative ratings as he turns to general election
Mitt Romney has some of the highest negative ratings of any presidential candidate in recent history.
http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/romney-faces-high-negative-ratings-as-he-turns-to-general-election-9488.html
He cannot more run on his own past accomplishments, since he's FLIP-FLOPPED on ALL of them, and as a vulture capitalist, he's made sure livable wage jobs disappeared at the snap of his fingers, just to make him and his cronies wealthier, while paying less taxes!
The KING of etch-a-sketch is Obama - first you see the Constitution and then you don't. First he wants to help the poor and then he plays almost 100 rounds of golf with $16.00 a piece for muffins and wants more power to go to the executive branch as he said 56 minutes into TSOTU - that would make him a KING! Huge disconnect. Christ is not running for office but we don't have to vote the worst in the likes of Barry Obama! Mr. Romney has ethics, a large successful family and not owing his wealth to the unions! I don't have much, but Mr. Romney has my $100.00.
ROMNEY is educated and has the experience to turn this country around - beating Obama on any and every level...
Don't take my word for it, look it up! The UK is our friend and ally, that doesn't mean for a minute, that Mitt Romney wants us to become Europe - that is Obama's position. Obama gave the Chinese and Russia gave the serial numbers for EVERY nuclear weapon the US has ever sold to Brittan... That is an enemy to the US and Israel... Look it up and see it's truthfulness.
Romney is rich - I too, want to become rich. Since when is that a horrible aspiration for any and every American? Isn't that what we all want to be? I don't want to be a financial burden to my family or my country. Since when is THAT wrong??? You'll be grateful is I can pull it off - I'll be one less person you'll have to spoon feed!
On the other hand, Unions are exempt from rising preiums indefinatly! That leaves me and you out on the street! Pathetic! Barry, go back to Punahou Schhool in Hawaii, where you were worhipped as the school's bigest jock! Pull yourself away from the mirror, we've all met high school jocks - they never lose their ego!
Just look how disrespectful Obama is to his own wife! You thing we're going to get better than THAT?!?
He does keep trying, 95 rounds of golf as president!
You knew what I was when you picked me up!