From Orlando, Florida -
Ten days after a stunning setback at the hands of Newt Gingrich, backers of Mitt Romney hope he is poised for victory in the Sunshine State, after days of intense attacks against his closest GOP rival.
In the closing hours of this race, Romney leveled broadside after broadside against Gingrich, departing from his usual stump speech script to begin two rallies with nothing but verbal abuse for the former Speaker.
"This has been fun these last ten days or so in Florida," Romney said at one of his Monday stops, giving off the feeling that he is confident about the Tuesday vote.
"The people here in Florida said they were not going to get behind Newt Gingrich, they were going to get behind Mitt Romney," he said in a Bob Dole third person moment.
Speaking of former Sen. Dole - one of the many establishment Republicans to come out in the past ten days against Newt Gingrich - I remember a time on the campaign trail when Dole fully embraced Gingrich.
It was February of 1996, and Dole was running for President. His stump speech had a recurring line where he would pay homage to the Republican Congress by saying, "We've never had a Speaker named Newt before," and the crowd would scream its approval.
He would then follow it up with the line, "We've never had a President named Bob before," which would send the crowd into hoots and hollers as well.
But like a lot of things in politics, that was then and this is now.
Ten days ago, Newt Gingrich demolished Mitt Romney in South Carolina.
That was then. This is now.
And the 'now' in Florida is that Mitt Romney seems poised for his own victory in the Sunshine State.
Romney on Monday was ruthless on the stump, going after Gingrich in a way that I had not been seen in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.
At the start of rallies in both Jacksonville and Dunedin, Romney went into a verbal napalm mode against Gingrich, ridiculing and mocking the Speaker repeatedly.
"It's been painfully revealing to watch," Romney said dismissively in Dunedin of Gingrich's actions in recent days.
Romney again referred to Gingrich as Goldilocks, chiding him for complaining that the debate crowd wasn't loud enough last week in Tampa and more.
Combined with incessant attacks on Gingrich's record in Congress - "He was forced to resign in disgrace" - Romney showed off a side in recent days that many weren't sure he had down in his gut, that of a Lee Atwater political animal who doesn't want to just defeat a rival, but wants to destroy and humiliate his opponent.
If Romney wins big in Florida tonight, the winner could be the Republican Party, because their so-so candidate might well have been able to graduate into The Big Time of politics.
They don't call it Hardball for nothing.
By the time the evening news was airing on Monday, Romney had done his job. His attacks on Gingrich were part of the tableau of Monday's news.
And so, in his final event of the day, Romney did what he had been doing for weeks with Gingrich in late 2011.
He ignored him.
Scorched earth, plus scorn, plus a dose of ridicule, plus a slew of attack ads might just be a formula for Romney to win the GOP nomination over Gingrich.
We'll see what the voters in Florida decide on Tuesday.
