From Canton, Ohio -
After crusing to an easy victory in the Washington State GOP caucuses on Saturday, Mitt Romney has one final day of campaigning ahead of him in Ohio, with increasing signs that he is gathering crucial momentum on the eve of Super Tuesday balloting in 10 states.
"This is like an Ohio State football game, this is amazing," Romney said to big cheers at an overflow rally on Saturday in Dayton, Ohio.
The scene at that Dayton rally could not have been any more different than almost two weeks earlier down the road in Cincinnati, when a small crowd hardly applauded as Romney gave his stump speech, raising questions about Romney's candidacy in the Buckeye State.
At the time, Romney trailed in the polls both in Ohio and Michigan - since then, he won a comeback victory in Michigan and has been gaining in the polls here in Ohio in recent days on Rick Santorum.
Romney also had a large rally on Sunday down in Georgia, where Newt Gingrich is far ahead in the polls - Romney's goal there isn't to catch Gingrich, but rather to try to elbow out Santorum for second and to capture at least 20% of the statewide vote in order to be elgible for one pool of delegates.
As he has repeatedly in recent days, Romney stuck to economic themes, arguing that his business experience is much better than that of his GOP opponents - or President Obama.
"The economy is what I do, it's what I know, it's what I've done," Romney said in suburban Atlanta.
"He sounded presidential and the entire event had a major league feel vs the minor league Santorum event Thursday," said Georgia voter Dan Murray, whom I interviewed last week when Santorum came to Atlanta on Thursday.
At the time, Murray said he was waffling between Santorum and Romney; after Sunday's event, Murray was in Romney's camp, even if he isn't "bowled over" by the former Massachusetts Governor.
"I am convinced he has the best chance of the choices to beat the incumbent," Murray told me in a Sunday afternoon email.
Obviously, one voter doesn't make a trend; but after Romney's win in Washington State and the evidence that his poll numbers are bubbling up in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio, I just wonder if we are watching a number of Republicans decide that Romney is the best choice for their party in November.
A poll out Sunday night from Public Policy Polling showed of those making up their minds in the last few days in Ohio, they were breaking 40-23 for Romney; in Tennessee, they were breaking slightly for Romney as well, but not enough to head off a big early voting lead for Santorum in the Volunteer State.
But the overall PPP poll in the Buckeye State was basically a dead heat, with Romney ahead by one point, a statistically insignificant amount.
