Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney backed away from a campaign stop claim that he was going to win the Iowa caucuses, saying this morning that he could finish as low as third in today’s voting, but that he’ll be in position to prosecute a long primary process.
“I think it’s hard to predict exactly what’s going to happen, but I think I’m going to be among the top group,” Romney said today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when asked about his earlier prediction. “I don’t know if it’s one, two, or three, but all three of us are going to get a good send-off going into New Hampshire and South Carolina and Florida — it’s a long road.”
Discussing his ongoing inability to appeal to a broad swath of the conservative, Republican base, Romney looked to his firewall state. “The nice thing about New Hampshire, for instance, we looked at the Tea Party voters,” he said, “I have a good lead with Tea Partiers and people who consider themselves very conservative.”
“I’m not going to get everybody to support me,” Romney acknowledged, — adding “not yet” in a nod to his hope to win the nomination and unite the party in the general election.
