Romney Is THE Candidate


After devoting seven years and tens of millions of dollars trying to convince conservatives that he is one of them, Mitt Romney finally has a firm grip on the Republican presidential nomination. Now comes the hard part. In a matter of weeks, Romney must shift his focus away from the right and hone his message for the mass audience that will vote in November, all while building a campaign organization to challenge Barack Obama's finely tuned machine. The Romney campaign, long aware that their buttoned-up candidate is better suited for a general election fight than the red meat demands of a GOP primary battle, has been preparing for this moment for years. But thanks to the heated Republican debates over contraception and immigration, Romney begins the race trailing Obama by double-digit margins among female voters and by almost 40 points among Latinos. Romney received a warm welcome at the NRA meeting, where the mere mention of the president's name elicited furious boos -- evidence that anger toward Obama might be enough to motivate the Republican base even if Romney fails to do so on his own.