CBS' Scott Conroy on Romney in 08 South Carolina Elections

Fresh off the crucial victory in last night’s Michigan primary, a confident Mitt Romney took his campaign south of the Mason-Dixon line for a 1 1/2 day long bus tour through South Carolina. Romney was brimming with confidence this morning, and his stump stories and routine jokes seemed to hit the mark better than usual with the crowd of about 500 retirees here.

“I think Senator McCain has a very strong lead here,” Romney said to reporters. “He’s the clear frontrunner. It would be an enormous surprise if he were to be unable to win here. I’d like to do better than my current place, which is fourth, but even a strong fourth is better than what some of the other guys saw in Michigan last night.”

Several recent South Carolina polls actually show Romney in third place, trailing McCain and Mike Huckabee and ahead of Fred Thompson.

While his three main rivals here plan to devote all of their energies to the Palmetto State over the next four days, Romney is scheduled to fly out to Nevada tomorrow to try to secure a victory in Saturday’s caucus there. Romney pointed out to reporters that South Carolina only awards 24 GOP delegates, while there are 34 delegates to be won in Nevada.

“I’m not looking for gold stars on my forehead like I was in first grade,” Romney said. “I want delegates.”

Romney said that after South Carolina and Nevada vote on Saturday, he would focus his attention on the 21 GOP Super Tuesday states with contests on February 5th and would also expend resources in Florida, which holds its primary on January 29th.

“Interestingly, Florida looks wide open,” Romney said. “Instead of being the firewall for the Giuliani campaign, it’s going to be a real contest.”

Romney said he disagrees with the notion that Republican voters are disappointed with the GOP field and said that five well-qualified candidates represents “an embarrassment of riches.”

“You've got Senator McCain, who is a national hero,” Romney said. “You've got Rudy Giuliani, who is America’s mayor. You've got Governor Huckabee who's a very well-spoken and entertaining individual. You've got Fred Thompson, who is a senator and a charming actor, and then you’ve got a guy like myself who has spent their life in the private sector. And all five of the ones I just mentioned, if I did my math correctly, are pretty impressive in their own right.”

An Article by The Trail on Romney in 08 Elections

Steve Schmidt, a top McCain strategist, attributed yesterday's loss to "Mitt Romney's pandering up in Michigan" by promising what Schmidt called a "$100 billion bailout of the auto industry...Mitt Romney should explain to the rest of the country how he's going to pay for it."

The morning after John McCain lost the Michigan primary to Mitt Romney, his team rolled out a new attack on the former Massachusetts governor, even likening him to John Kerry as a flip-flopper.

While Romney has proposed a five-year, $20 billion-a-year effort to revitalize the ailing auto industry, the Arizona senator has emphasized worker retraining and research into green technologies. Schmidt would not put a price tag on that but minimized the retraining plan as a consolidation of existing programs.

Speaking to reporters after a rally here today, McCain declined to use the word "pandering" but said of Romney: "By promising that amount of money to the auto industry, at least he ought to be able to say where it's going to come from." McCain cited statistics purporting to show that Massachusetts lagged the nation in economic growth during Romney's four-year term.

Asked why he began the Greenville rally by touting his record of opposing abortion, McCain said it is an important issue here and that "we know there are phone calls being made that I am pro-choice."

Schmidt, a top official in President Bush's reelection campaign, told reporters earlier today that Romney's shifting positions are reminiscent of Kerry, who was dogged by charges of flip-flopping in 2004. "When you have a candidate like Mitt Romney who's been on both sides of every issue...it's a tremendous liability in a general election," he said.

Schmidt broadened the verbal assault to include what he called Romney's "rather weak record as governor of Massachusetts," including sluggish job growth and a $700 million boost in taxes and fees, and said Romney's record of trimming jobs as a corporate takeover artist would also be fair game.

The remarks, significantly harsher than what McCain has said, clearly reflect an effort to rough up Romney and blunt any momentum he may have garnered heading into Saturday's South Carolina primary. Although McCain campaigned hard in Michigan, Schmidt dismissed the victory by Romney, who grew up there, as a triumph by a "native son."

The McCain camp was rather annoyed last night when Romney gave his victory speech soon after the networks projected him the winner at 9 p.m., prompting some cable networks to break away from McCain's remarks. Protocol usually dictates that the winner wait until the losing candidates have thanked their supporters.

"Totally classless," Schmidt said.