NASHUA, N.H. — With T-minus 36 hours and counting until the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney has had a marvelous revelation: He finished second in Iowa, which really means he almost won, which really means he is almost a front-runner here.
“I was pleased to come in second,” says Mr. Romney, the man who spent millions and millions of dollars only to lose that frozen chunk of the Midwest to an under-financed former Arkansas governor. “I could have come in third, or fourth or fifth, even.”
He smiles at the audience and shakes his head; whew, that could have been so bad.
Along with this epiphany, Mr. Romney has layered on another of his affable-sounding if sometimes disorienting course changes. In Iowa, he talked a lot about his family and his bred-in-the-bone social conservatism, his anti-abortion stance and the like, and his support of the Republican administration. Now, with the avuncular smile that never entirely slips off his face, he is retailing a sad new story.
The federal government is a broken-down jalopy. (Mr. Romney road-tested this theme in New Hampshire Saturday morning; his campaign quickly manufactured big blue signs: “Washington Is Broken.”) .........
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