Shushannah Walshe, writing for ABC News, gets the scoop on what Mitt Romney is telling donors about how he can win this time:
[H]is [Romney’s] pitch also veers away from what he says on the stump. When Romney gets into the room with potential donors trying to lure them to his campaign, he’s consistently asked how he’s going to win. According to several donors, Romney tells the crowd that his strategy will work: they will win New Hampshire and Nevada and are hoping to “get lucky” in Iowa and South Carolina. They believe if they win 3 out of those 4 contests they will sail to the nomination. If they only win two they believe they will be one of two candidates left in the race and he’ll push his jobs message to victory from that point on and they think he’ll have the cash to last, unlike last time.
The same fundraiser says the campaign calls it the “Bob Dole playbook” referring to Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign where he was able to defeat Pat Buchanan. Like in that campaign, the Romney team sees the primary coming down to Romney and an “unelectable hard right counterweight,” which would enable Romney to be victorious.