Mitt says he can beat Obama in November

STRATHAM, N.H. — Mitt Romney hopes his Washington-outsider status will push Granite State voters to choose him when they hit the polls today to determine who should be the Republican nominee for president.

Since his second-place finish in the Iowa caucus, Romney has been visiting with supporters and those all-important "undecideds" in towns across New Hampshire seeking to convince them he's the right choice — not only because of his own positions but because he says he can beat current Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., come November.

In a two-minute ad called "tomorrow," aired on New Hampshire television Monday night, Romney says "that those who've spent their careers in Washington can't change Washington."

"It's long past time to bring real change to Washington," Romney said. "That's never going to happen if all we do is send the same people back to Washington to sit in different chairs."

As he spoke before a standing-room-only crowd of about 500 people Monday night, Romney outlined his experience with changing businesses, changing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, changing the state of Massachusetts during his term as governor and how the nation is also facing changes.

But the New Hampshire twist to his stump speech now has Romney telling voters that if he learned anything from the Iowa wins of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Obama, it's that they do not want a Beltway retread but a fresh face in the White House.

"The need for change in Washington could not be more clear and apparent to the people of New Hampshire and the people of America," Romney said Monday, adding that he and Huckabee both finished well ahead of the Washington establishment — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee — in Iowa.

"There is no way that our party would be successful in the fall if we put forward a long-serving senator to stand up against Barack Obama's message of change," Romney said at a press conference after speaking to employees at the Timberland clothing company headquarters in Stratham.

"It's going to take a person who is himself an innovator, like myself, who has the experience to bring change to Washington to be able to go head to head with Barack Obama and win."

In addition to distinguishing himself on immigration, taxes and other issues from McCain, who is still leading in the New Hampshire polls, Romney emphasized that voters are starting to recognize Obama may beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Putting up another "long-serving United States senator is not the best match-up," Romney said.