Atlantic, Iowa — Like all of Mitt Romney’s events in these last few days before the Iowa caucuses, his stop at a franchise of the northern-Iowa chain restaurant The Family Table has drawn a packed crowd, cramming just about every nook and cranny.

While the media form a significant chunk of those filling the homey, diner-like rooms, there are also caucus-goers gathered. Flanked by his wife Ann and their youngest son Craig, Romney delivers a message to them: He’s the candidate who can bring about a revival of America’s economy.

“When [President Obama] was on the Today show,” Romney says, “only, I guess, just a few weeks after being inaugurated, he was asked, what are you going to do in your presidency, and he said, look, if I can’t get this economy to turn around in three years, I’ll be looking at a one-term proposition.”

“I’m here to collect,” Romney continues. “We’re going to get him out of his office. We’re going to restore to this nation the principles that made us the economic powerhouse we have been.”

Right now, that’s a message resonating in the Hawkeye state. The respected Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night showed Romney in the lead at 24 percent. Even though both Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are close in the same poll, it’s conceivable that Romney could win Iowa, despite the fact that he has virtually ignored the state for the bulk of the campaign and has done little retail campaigning there, although he has quietly created a state-wide organization. For Romney, whose distant-second-place 2008 finish after a significant effort in Iowa proved a fiasco he could never recover from, a Hawkeye-state win in 2012 would be an especially sweet victory.

Mark Lundberg, Sioux County GOP chair, thinks Romney could well have that victory this time around. “I think with the seven- or eight-person split of the vote, 25, 26 percent could easily win the state of Iowa and he has a very good chance of that,” he says.

Lundberg, who attended Romney’s Saturday campaign stop at the Family Table franchise in Le Mars, was also impressed by the assembled crowd, which spilled out into the foyer. That level of turnout “shows a lot of support for Romney today,” Lundberg observes. For his part, Romney assumes an air of pleasant surprise upon seeing the overflow audiences: “My goodness,” he remarked at one crowded town-hall gathering, “does Sioux City always do that when we come to town? It’s amazing.”

Driving Romney’s Iowa popularity is his perceived advantage in electability. “I’m thinking Romney,” says Joe Phillips, a business owner who lives in Atlantic, about whom he would support in the caucus. “I like a few of the candidates, to be honest, but I just think that Romney is the more electable choice. I like Rick Santorum, but I still think Romney’s the more electable choice between the two.”

Phillips isn’t alone. Tom Mitchell, a retiree who attended Romney’s Sioux City town hall on Saturday, said electability was why he had decided to vote for Romney rather than Santorum or Newt Gingrich. “My primary motivator is that we get Obama out of there, and I think Mitt is the best equipped to beat him in the fall,” Mitchell says. Chris Knapp, a stay-at-home mom who made sure she got a photo with Romney as he was leaving his Le Mars stop Saturday, also cited electability as the reason that she’s leaning toward voting for Romney over Santorum. The difference between the two candidates, Knapp said, was “Mitt Romney can beat Barack Obama, and I think that’s important that we get the White House back.”

But electability isn’t Romney’s only appeal to Hawkeye voters. Chris Hackwell, a former member of the Air Force, remained undecided about his vote after Romney’s speech in Atlantic, but was pleased that Romney mentioned Iran while on the stump. “I haven’t heard anybody else talk about it yet,” said Hackwell, who is rooting for a Romney-Bachmann ticket. Bob Stewart, a Sioux City doctor who voted for Rudy Giuliani last cycle, approvingly noted Romney’s “executive ability.”

Speaking in Sioux City, Romney is adamant about the important role Iowa will play this cycle. “We’re going to take back the White House, and it’s going to start right here,” he declares. “We’re going to save America starting on Tuesday night with a vote here in the caucuses.”

A little later, Romney weaves in some flattery for Iowa, when discussing one of his “favorite” songs, “America the Beautiful.” “‘O beautiful for spacious skies,” Romney quotes in Sioux City. “You have those here. And amber waves of grain. Does corn count as an amber wave of grain? . . . ‘For purple mountain majesties.’ Not a lot of purple mountains in the Sioux land, but what a wonderful part of the country this is.”

In his remarks, Romney does not directly argue that he will be more viable than his GOP rivals would be in the general election. But in his very last comment to the audience,after taking a handful of questions, he highlights November 6.

“I can tell you this,” he says. “If I’m your nominee, I will be back in the general election and we will win Iowa and take back the White House with the support of this great state.”

— Katrina Trinko is an NRO reporter.