In Marion, Romney Predicts Iowa Victory Victory

Days after placing first in the polls, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney embraced his front-runner status with a bold prediction.

"We are going to win this thing," he said to a packed audience Monday at  in Marion.

Hundreds of people packed into an industrialized storage room filled with racks of dusty tires and old machine parts as dozens of journalists perched atop makeshift stands.

Romney used the industrial setting as an opportunity to talk about job creation and the economy, speaking on what he believes to be President Barack Obama’s failure to revive the economy and his own experience "turning businesses around."

But he also used his time in Marion to reiterate that he is the safe bet to beat Obama in the general election.

His comments highlighted his safe-bet status — what some believe to be his greatest asset and greatest weakness — as part of his final pitch to Iowans before Tuesday night's caucuses.

"You have a job to do," Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, told the audience. "Which is to set the stage for this entire election and let people figure out and coalesce around one candidate that can actually beat Barak Obama."

Those words did not fall on deaf ears.

Randy Schilt, a 53-year-old  Monticello resident, said that before he came all the way from Jones County he was undecided, guessing that the chances of voting for Romney were 50 percent. Afterward, he put those chances at 90 percent.

"I think he is the most presidential of all of them," he said. "He has that class about him of Ronald Reagan or George Bush."

Schilt said he is leaning toward Romney in part because he's the Republican with the best chance of winning the presidency.

"I believe he is our most electable Republican," he said. "I don’t want to put a candidate out there that cannot win the presidency."