Mitt Romney said Monday that rival Republican John McCain can’t win a general election against Barack Obama, whom Romney now believes will beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
On the eve of today’s New Hampshire primary, Romney warned that Obama, who has been in the Senate for just three years, would easily beat McCain, who has been in the Senate for more than 20. As evidence, Romney pointed to Obama’s victory in last week’s Iowa caucuses over three more experienced Democratic senators, Clinton, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd.
“Barack Obama may well become the Democratic nominee,” Romney told voters at a country club. “And if we put up a long-term-serving senator who can talk about his years and years of experience, Barack Obama will do to him what he did to the other Democrats who made the same pitch.
“We’re going to have to have somebody who can say, ‘I’m not only from the outside, I’m somebody who knows how to bring change,’ ” the former Massachusetts governor added. “And I can bring the change that America needs.”
After the speech, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom made clear to reporters that the campaign has all but written off Clinton, who had been the Democratic front-runner until her third-place finish in Iowa last week.
“Everyone was expectingHillary Clinton all year long, and now it looks like it’s going to be Barack Obama,” he said. “He’s the candidate of change on the Democratic side. The only way to beat change is with change of our own — and that’s Mitt Romney.”
Responding to questions from The Examiner, Fehrnstrom said strong debate performances over the weekend were helping Romney chip away at McCain’s lead in the New Hampshire polls.
“He’s a one-state candidate,” he said of McCain. “We don’t have to win. We have to finish in the top tier, which is the top two.”
