ABC News
Forget about the polls that show Mitt Romney trailing President Obama in Pennsylvania by more than 10 points, and never mind the fact that the Romney campaign has spent virtually no money in the state. The Republican candidate remains convinced he can still win the state in November.
“I’ve got a little secret here and that is the Obama campaign thinks that Pennsylvania is in their pocket, they don’t need to worry about it,” Romney said during a rally at the Valley Forge Military Academy this afternoon.
As the crowd erupted in “boos” and “no ways!” Romney responded, “And you’re right, and they’re wrong.”
“We’re going to win Pennsylvania and we’re going to take back the White House!” he said.
In his speech today, Romney referred himself as the “president future,” discussing military cuts and job losses, tailoring his stump speech to Pennsylvania residents. “Let me note, not coincidentally, that someone has calculated how many jobs will be lost in Pennsylvania if those trillion dollars in cuts go through, it’s 39,000 jobs,” said Romney, in talking about proposed defense cuts. “We can’t afford that. So we recognize the consequence of what the president is doing is severe for the people in Pennsylvania it’s severe for the entire nation and in fact, because of the world’s demand for American leadership, it’s severe for the entire world.”
The Obama campaign said in response to Romney’s remarks that several of his comments were “false” and that “in next week’s debate, facts will matter — and Mitt Romney simply failed to meet the bar of honesty today.”
Today was Romney’s first visit to the state since July 17, and one that comes on the heels of a fundraiser this morning that required the candidate to be in the state. There is no early voting in Pennsylvania, unlike several of the other swing states that Romney has spent more time in as of late, which gives the Romney campaign more time to make up ground. But earlier this week, a Quinnipiac/CBS News/NY Times poll had Obama leading Romney 54 to 42 and the Romney campaign currently has no ads on the air in the state.
At that morning fundraiser, Romney was optimistic, remarking, “I need you to get more people to vote. Because on Nov. 6, I’m going to win Pennsylvania, and I’m going to become the next president of the United States.”
“We need every single vote,” he said. “You know we really would shock people if early in the evening of Nov. 6 it looked like Pennsylvania was going to come our way and actually did come our way. That could happen. That could happen.”
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/romney-sees-pa-win-despite-polls-ad-spend/