Even though they knew victory was within their grasp in Florida, Mitt Romney’s team still feels a huge sense of relief tonight, having been tested with a South Carolina loss and proving he is ready for the long haul.
“We earned it the old fashioned way,” a key associate told the Examiner. “There is happinness, resoluteness and, well, a bit of relief.”
Explaining how Romney dusted himself off after Newt Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina, aides tonight said that Romney refocused his message on the economy and jobs, deciding along to the way not to take Gingrich’s attack bait. He also tuned up his speeches hitting President Obama’s handling of the economy and weak programs to add jobs.
“We had high levels of discipline and determination,” said the associate. “Desire, dedication and discipline is what you really need in a presidential candidate.”
In his victory speech tonight, Romney kept to his focus on Obama and the economy, pulling lines from the past week’s speeches and essentially laying out his pitch to voters in Nevada where Republicans will hold a caucus this weekend.
“Together, we will build an America where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker,” he told his Florida fans.
In Nevada, said the advisor, Romney will address the same issues. “There we will talk about unemployment, housing, foreclosures.”
But as he travels to Nevada, insiders tonight said that the “vibe” had changed with the Florida victory. “The campaign has a very workman feel to it. Tonight, we got the job done and people are very happy about that,” said one insider.
“We’re in a new phase of the campaign now,” said the insider. “This campaign is built for the long fight. It looks like it’s going to be long and we’re settling in for that.”
But the Romney campaign said that Gingrich hurt himself with his attacks, especially the latest call to voters claiming that Romney pushed to stop funding of kosher foods for seniors.
“Holocaust survivors, who for the first time were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher,” said the robo call.
“He hit the third rail with that one,” said the Romney insider.
Reach Paul Bedard at @whispersbedard or [email protected].
