Nashua, N.H. – In the eyes of the Paul campaign, the New Hampshire primary is a showdown between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney

“This is a two-man race,” says Jesse Benton, Paul’s national campaign chairman. “This is between Ron and Mitt. There’s no question about that. The question is, can we surge and come up fast enough, can our grassroots counteract his status quo establishment support?”

“We need to do well,” he adds. “We can’t get blown out. If we’re in second place, but we lose by 30 points, that’s not going to be very impressive.”

Asked if he was worried at all about Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum beating Paul in the primary, Benton gave an adamant “no.”

Paul, who came in fifth place and got around 8 percent of the vote in the Granite State primary last cycle, will almost certainly improve on those numbers this time aorund. Speaking at a rally this afternoon, Paul drew hundreds of supporters who packed the airport hangar the event was held in. In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Paul is at about 20 percent, 20 points behind Romney, but ahead of the rest of the pack.