Romney Touts His Debate Performance
DERRY, N.H. -- After stopping by Mary Ann's diner to shake some hands with voters this morning, Mitt Romney was asked what needed to happen in New Hampshire for him to pull off a victory over John McCain here.
"Well, debates had to be real good for me, and they were," Romney said to a reporter as he was leaving the diner. "The reports coming out of the debates [and] the focus groups that we saw on TV that Frank Luntz did were very, very positive. If enough people saw the debates, that'll be enough for me to win."
Romney was referring to a focus group conducted by Fox News after last night's debate, in which a small pool of Republican voters overwhelmingly said they thought Romney came out on top.
Although the governor is still thinking positively about New Hampshire, the campaign is trying to lower expectations. Ron Kaufman, a senior Romney advisor, boarded the press bus this morning and argued that McCain has spent so much time in effort in New Hampshire, it's no surprise that the Arizona senator is leading in the polls.
"He did the same thing in 2000 — he basically ran for governor of New Hampshire," Kaufman said. "By the way, I'm not knocking him. He's just running for a second term, and he's not doing as well as he did the first term."
Kaufman said that even if Romney doesn't win in New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor will likely have more total votes than any other GOP candidate through the first three voting states of Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire. Even though the initial campaign strategy of winning early and often would be in tatters should Romney lose the state, Kaufman argued that the governor would still be in a good position to win the nomination.
"It's a long marathon," Kaufman said.