Mitt Romney: ‘I’m feeling pretty good’ about Iowa, New Hampshire

A buoyant Mitt Romney said Wednesday that while he could not predict a win in Iowa, he was optimistic that his support and momentum was growing in the days leading up to the first presidential voting contest in the nation.

“The response I’m getting is really quite heartening,” he told reporters after holding two brief rallies in restaurants here. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, I can’t join the expectations game, but I can tell you I’m feeling pretty good about the support I’m receiving here in Iowa, and New Hampshire for that matter, and it’s looking like we’re going to be off to a good start.”

Romney made the remarks shortly before a new CNN poll showed him as the front-runner in both states. He demurred when asked if a strong showing in Iowa and a win in New Hampshire would quickly sew up the GOP presidential nomination.

“I can’t possibly allow myself to think in such optimistic terms. I just have to put my head down and battle as best as I can, take my message across the country and see what happens. I can’t come up with a hypothetical setting that would be delightful but not necessarily realistic and we’ll see how the polls work out. I can tell you, if the people in Clinton are any example or any indication of what’s going to happen in the process, I feel pretty good.”

Romney was initially scheduled to host a rally at Homer’s Deli, but then so many people showed up that the campaign also held an overflow event at an Italian restaurant across the street. While the former Massachusetts governor is drawing enthusiastic overflow crowds on his bus tour of Iowa, the campaign is also choosing cozy locales that guarantee media coverage of the event will show packs of supporters spilling out.

He batted back at rival Newt Gingrich’s assertion that attack ads against fellow Republicans was a boon to President Obama, repeating a line about how the eventual nominee would face $1 billion in attack ads from “Barack Obama’s hell’s kitchen.”

“We’ve got to have broad shoulders,” he said.

Romney seemed unconcerned with a mailer put out by a super PAC supporting Gingrich that labeled him the second most dangerous man in America.

“I think people can probably figure out that there are maybe some other people higher on that list,” he said.