Romney Gains Credibility In Early Primary States - Push in Iowa, N.H. Puts Him in Top Tier

[jamesinca]

Source: Washington Post

Romney Gains Credibility In Early Primary States
Push in Iowa, N.H. Puts Him in Top Tier

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007; A01



BOSTON -- When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney began airing television ads in a handful of states last winter, his opponents paid little notice. Early advertising in presidential campaigns -- particularly commercials broadcast almost 11 months before the first contests -- seemed a classic waste of resources.

Four months and more than $4 million later, Romney's ads are still running, and the GOP presidential candidate is reaping the dividends. Although he remains well behind former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona in most national polls, his standing in the states that will kick off the nominating process has risen dramatically.

In New Hampshire, Romney leads both McCain, who won there in 2000, and Giuliani, who leads virtually all the national polls. In Iowa, his campaign's organizational depth recently drove Giuliani and McCain to drop out of an August GOP presidential straw poll -- seen as a trial run for next year's first-in-the-nation caucuses -- rather than risk a costly and embarrassing defeat at the hands of their lesser-known rival.

Romney's rise is an instructive story of seizing opportunities, maximizing small advantages, attention to detail and a few lucky breaks. The challenge his advisers faced at the beginning of the year was to prove that he belonged in the same conversation with McCain and Giuliani. Now he has done that, long before demonstrating any significant national support.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401632_pf.html

[jamesinca]

1. Go Mittens

He is the one that gets beat in head to head by every Democratic candidate out there. Go Mittens Go Mittens !!!!

[GeorgeGist]

2. Credibility among ...

morons isn't hard to achieve.