Romney: GOP Race Won't Be Decided On Tuesday
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. -- Though he once expected to have the Republican nomination nearly locked up by now, Mitt Romney said that he's now ready to hunker down for the long haul.
"Looking at the numbers of delegates and the numbers of states, I don't think somebody's going to walk away with the needed numbers, so I think this thing goes on well beyond Tuesday," Romney said at an impromptu press conference aboard his campaign plane. "I don't look early at the calendar beyond Tuesday, but I know there is one, and I intend to keep on battling."
Although he lags behind John McCain in many of the delegate-rich states that vote on Tuesday, Romney said he was heartened by the recent coalescing of support he's received from influential conservative talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham.
"I think one of the dynamics that changed is that conservative Republicans and mainstream Republicans all over the country — in he last 48 hours or so — have concentrated on the prospect of Senator McCain being our nominee and are saying, 'That's not the direction we want to go,'" Romney said.
The governor's press secretary Eric Fehrnstrom pointed out that Romney is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Asked what he plans to do with his life if he doesn't win the prize for which he has been actively campaigning for more than a year, Romney demurred.
"If I don't win, I'll have plenty of time that I can think," he said.