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Brian Snyder / Reuters
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney talks to senior advisor Stuart Stevens on his campaign bus enroute to a campaign rally in Pompano Beach, Florida January 29, 2012.
Mitt Romney's strength may be growing, but he won't secure the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, even if he scores a convincing victory in Florida's primary.
His rivals have vowed to keep fighting well beyond the Jan. 31 election. But win or lose in Florida, the Romney machine is already executing an aggressive multi-state strategy designed to suffocate his opponents' chances as the GOP contest moves forward. And some Republicans say it's time for Romney's rivals to give up.
Recommended: Gingrich's baggage gives voters pause in Panhandle
"By traditional measures, a big Florida win for Romney would mean that this thing is just about wrapped up," said Todd Harris, a Washington-based Republican strategist with Florida ties. "Most Republicans think it's time to stop the infighting and start taking the campaign straight to President Obama."
Florida polls showed that Newt Gingrich briefly surged into the lead following his South Carolina victory just nine days ago. That lead is gone, according to an NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday. Romney now has support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for the former House speaker.
But even before he reclaimed the momentum in this rollercoaster race, Romney's advisers were looking ahead.
There are seven elections in February, beginning with Nevada's caucuses Saturday. A series of lower-profile contests — including a non-binding Missouri caucus — come over the next week in Colorado, Minnesota and Maine. They're followed by a 17-day break, which ends with primaries in Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28.
The mid-month break, bookended by states considered favorable to Romney, presents significant challenges for the other candidates, who trail Romney in both money and organization.
"I think the biggest thing to keep an eye on is that two-and-a-half-week down time between the 11th and the 28th," said Romney political director Rich Beeson. "If you don't have momentum and resources coming into it, it's going to be hard to have momentum and resources coming out of it."
Romney has consistently dominated his opponents in fundraising, reporting $19 million in his campaign account at the end of December. And his campaign distributed paid staff on the ground — months ago, in some cases — to bolster a growing network of local supporters. They include a combined 380 Republican officials across February voting states, eight members of Congress among them.
Romney's advisers — and unaffiliated Republicans — see a widening path to victory beyond Florida.
"A lot of the contests are states he won four years ago. Some of them are big primary states like Michigan. Arizona, we didn't get to in 2008, but we think that's good, fertile territory for us," said Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. "Other states — Colorado, Minnesota, Maine — these are all contests we won in the past, where Mitt still retains a strong base of support."
The optimism is backed by reality on the ground.
While his opponents have struggled to compete in one state at a time, Romney has had paid staff in Nevada since June. He has already begun advertising there. More recently, the campaign dispatched staff to Colorado and Arizona. Top New Hampshire surrogates are headed to Maine in the coming days.
And Romney is scheduled to campaign across Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota before next Saturday, according to Fehrnstrom.
He's not the only one looking ahead. Texas Rep. Ron Paul is skipping Florida altogether in favor of the less-expensive February states. Rick Santorum — who's dealing with his daughter's illness — this weekend abandoned plans to campaign in Florida in favor of Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado and Nevada.
But building momentum in those states alone will be difficult. And Republicans with no stake in the campaign agree that Romney has tremendous advantages.
"You've got one campaign with vastly superior resources across the board," said Washington-based Republican strategist Phil Musser, adding that fundraising will be an increasingly daunting challenge for Romney's competitors should he win Florida.
Outside help from so-called super PACs could be ending as well. Gingrich's recent rise was aided by a wealthy supporter who recently funneled $10 million to an outside group dedicated to helping him.
"For super donors, the romantic period is over," Musser said before offering a warning. "If we've learned anything from this cycle, it's that there aren't many crystal balls that are clear."
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Romney represents "corporate elite".
Obama represents "big brother".
Gingrich, well, he wrote in his book something to the effect that the Constitution should be dismantled? Much like Obama when he stated that OUR Constitution is severely "flawed".
I thought Americans were tired of the back and forth corrupted policies that have failed this nation.
I have a good idea. Let's return to the Constitution. Get government off my back, and let business do business so that jobs can be created.
Hmm. Sounds like a job Ron Paul can do, based upon his solid record to defend and uphold the Constitution. Does anybody remember that piece of paper?
Ron Paul 2012!
Romney has enough money, with the help of the financial elite and the Unsupreme Cout, to buy the Republican nomination. That is how Autocracies function, the financial elite control the outcome and dictate the terms.
If you desire an Autocracie (dictatorship by another name), then by all means support the candidate that the financial elite buy the primary for.
If you happen to be the Republican Party majority, lunch pail working class Republicans, working for upper middle class and middle class wages, be assured that the Republican minority, the financial elite, most certainly do not represent your personal interests.
The Eisenhower Republicans have disappeared, this definetly is not your Father's or Grandfather's Republican Party, it is the Party of extremes, extreme wealth, extreme off the chart idealogy, extreme fantasy, extremely radical, extremely autocratic and unamerican.
Just what I've been saying over the last six months about Mr. Romney. And yet they're trying to coalesce around him and say he's going to beat President Obama.
The one reason for Romneys gain is the Democrates are pushing him. That way the can sing the rich boy against the poor boy come November.
I just wish that the American people would actually look at each candidates voting record prior to going into the voting booth. They would quickly see that all candidates have voted the same way - "population control". This goes for Obama, Gingrich, Romney and Santorum.
Ron Paul is the only one who has consistantly defended our Constitution. He would repeal all anti-constitutional laws while letting business do business to create jobs. We need to regain our civil liberties and freedom in order to prosper as a people, and as a nation.
Ron Paul 2012!
Please...Presidents don't "repeal laws." It would be unconstitutional.
Presidents are granted certain presidential powers (look it up). If it is deemed unconstitutional, I am sure that there are steps that he could take, or at least work with. In either case, it is far better than pushing more anti-civil-rights laws upon us which the current administration is doing.
Ron Paul 2012!
Is WHAT far better? A Ron Paul dictatorship? Are you nuts? Congress makes law; the Supreme Court may, upon its own decision, review law for its constitutionality, and overturn it. In which case, Congress then may either make new law that falls within what the Supreme Court thinks is constitutional, or may impeach Justices of the Supreme Court and give their "advise and consent" on new Justices, appointed by the President.
In short...the President has virtually NO POWER to decide what is constitutional or not and absolutely NO INDEPENDENT POWER over the Court.
Congress is the principal branch of government...with the votes, it alone may act against either the Executive or Judicial branches. All three branches have their own "independent powers," but in sum the powers of Congress are superior to the other branches.
That's why it's called a democracy.
P.S. I am appalled that a supposed supporter of Ron Paul would have such limited knowledge of constitutional government...although I believe we've agreed on other issues, in the past.
Stone: I often run across Teapublicans that say they are all for the Constitution, but they quickly make it clear that they've never read or understood what the Constitution actually says.
They've tried to claim the Constitution establishes the US as a Christian nation, they've tried to claim that the questions on the Census form were "unconstitutional", they've tried to claim that it was Constitutional to ban Muslims or Atheists from public offlce. All those claims are blatantly false.
I'm not the biggest Romney fan, but his success isn't just about the money he's raised. Gingrich could have seized control of this race with two good debating performances last week. Instead, Romney pounded him into the dirt. (Admittedly the press did Romney a huge favor by taking the crowd out of the debate on Monday).
As far as Romney being an elitest, he'll be facing a president with more money behind him than any campaign in history. Don't kid yourself- Obama doesn't care about anything except his re-election.
Hmmm...Staples is similar to one department in Wal-Mart. Romney (and others) simply took the "big box" business model of Wal-Mart and applied it to office products. Wal-Mart is now, I believe, the single largest employer in the country, but the real question is are they successful in terms of "net jobs," because the business model also drives a lot of small, locally focused stores, as well as local and regional distribution networks, out of business.
The impact of globalization - from Chinese factories, to huge container ships, to nationalized distribution and big box stores, is a subject that hasn't gotten much attention. I'd guess that "nationalizing retail sales," has done almost as much to hurt a prosperous middle class, by transferring wealth from small business owners to investors, as has the loss of well paid manufacturing jobs.
Remember, even Romney admits, the prime purpose of "leveraged buyouts," is to increase profit margins for stockholders, more often than not through increased efficiencies, NOT to add jobs.
Oops! Where did David's post go?
If Newt would realize he can not win this would be a better process.
Simply put, money talks. Even in an election. Sure people would really like to know where the politician stands but the politicians hire armies of people to tell them exactly what to say to appeal to the people. It is practically impossible anymore to get a straight answer from any politician. You will always get the canned answer some campaign strategist dreamed up for them. Our government might as well have strings attached since all our politicians have turned into puppets.
Thus, my conclusion is that whoever has the money is far more capable of getting their sound byte out there to the adoring masses. The only hope of beating someone with more money is actually having someone on their staff who is clever and works cheap.
Both Romney and Gingrich signed Grover Norquist's pledge not to raise taxes under ANY circumstances. In my opinion, anyone who has signed that pledge should stand trial for treason. A vote for either of these losers is a nail in the coffin of the middle class.
If Republicans in Congress are serious about tackling the debt problem, the 95% of them who have signed the Norquist Pledge, would burn their pledges on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and announce that their only oath is to the Constitution of the United States.
Do you know why gop voters doesn't know much about debt during Bush year. Well. when Bush and GOP spending money on two wars and Medicare part D, none of these cost was included in their accounting book. Then when Obama came in, there you have it, the hiding debt discover by Obama team, then GOP spin the fact, and blame on Obama, and take no responsiblility as always. Also, here is another fact for deficit.
Do you know that we borrow China $700 billion dollars a year to pay for super rich tax cut, because this is what the GOP wants? Further, in the eyes of GOP, this $700 billion dollars do not drive federal deficit, but jobs growth. Where are the jobs creations from $700 billion dollars tax cut? According to Newt, we're still affected by 911. Isn't this more than 10 years ago? Apparently, Newt, Mitt, and GOP are still in denial or in a coma. Not too long ago in 2008, GOP & Bush brought down the U.S and global economy, and now they're an expert on fixing this?
GOP and Tear Party, please stop pretending like you care about federal deficit when you're the one that drive the federal deficit--from two wars that unpaid for and borrow $700 billion dollars a year from China to pay for super rich tax cut that they don't need.
By the way, Mitt wants to cut his 13.9% tax in half and raise ordinary American workers to make up the revenue for the super rich tax cut.
And if that doesn't work, here comes Luca Rove Brasi.
The war on the middle class is in full swing....the only reason it survives is because the subtle racism and/or the pretense of "freedom" attracts white union workers to vote against their economic interests.....it took me a long time to figure that one out....luckily, I took the time to try and understand actual economics....and now I know the real issue...wake up, America....
The Romney machine has to get it threw its head that it might get the nomination, but it will NEVER beat Obama in a general election. Not a chance.