DERRY, N.H. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took to the streets of New Hampshire on Tuesday just hours after emerging unscathed from his first 2012 debate, brimming with a sense of confidence bestowed by his front-runner status in an unsettled GOP field. “I will probably be back in four years,” Romney proclaimed while touring a hardware store in the conservative-leaning town just outside of Manchester. “Only this time it will be a larger group and I will probably have Secret Service.”
As Romney walked down Derry’s main drag lined with vacant storefronts, passerby shouted “Mitt” and a throng of media recorded his every move, underscoring a very different image of the well-positioned candidate compared with his lackluster performance in the 2008 presidential race.
“Five years ago it was ‘who the heck are you’ and now it’s ‘we know who you are,’ ” Romney boasted during what amounted to a victory lap on friendly terrain.
At least for the short term, Romney is benefiting from the reluctance of his Republican rivals to batter him over a health care plan he instituted that requires Massachusetts residents to purchase insurance. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty coined the term Obamneycare recently, linking Romney’s health care program with President Obama’s national health care reforms, but did not follow through with the attack during Monday night’s debate in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
The lack of an intraparty squabble allowed Romney to keep his message focused on Obama’s handling of the economy — while polling above the rest of the Republican field.
“Has it been better since President Obama was in office?” Romney asked one small-business owner after another in Derry.
Each owner lamented slow sales, which Romney parlayed into a series of attacks against Obama.
“You can’t just blame George Bush anymore,” he told reporters. “Our president is not connected with what is happening in America.”
The favored son of New England is the early front-runner in New Hampshire, where a loss would cripple a presidential campaign built around the inevitability of carrying the center-left state.
As such, some strategists expect the self-assured tone to become a trademark of Romney’s campaign.
“It’s something we’ll quite possibly see as a strategy moving forward,” said Doug Heye, former communications director of the Republican National Committee. “The party usually nominates the person perceived as the front-runner. We did it with McCain, Bush, Dole and on down the line.”
But Romney shouldn’t bank on a showdown with Obama a year and a half before the election, Heye added.
“This is still a very fluid situation,” he said. “We’re debating earlier than 2008, even though the candidates are coming later.”
For Romney, a wealthy businessman, the post-debate morning was devoted to retail politicking — a folksy tour that included two diners, a hardware store and a feed shop — in an attempt to win over voters who previously dismissed him as a candidate to whom they could not relate.
Diane Bielizna, a retired veterans affairs worker from Hooksett, said Romney exuded commander-in-chief potential.
“He just looks presidential,” she said over breakfast at a diner in Manchester. “I can’t wait for him to take on Obama.”
