Romney on the road in New Hampshire

December 22, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

NEWPORT, N.H.

Projecting a front-runner’s confidence, Mitt Romney wound his way through the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state Wednesday, doing his best to charm the state’s mercurial voters just three weeks before votes are cast.

Traveling New Hampshire’s wooded byways in a 42-foot blue-and-white bus wrapped with his slogan — “Believe in America” — the candidate swatted away the complaints of his chief rival, Newt Gingrich, about independently financed ads that Romney partisans are leveling against the former House speaker in Iowa. He focused instead on media-magnified exchanges with voters that he hopes will solidify his lead here, in what is a must-win state for his campaign.

At a morning stop in Keene, Romney outlined his plans to prevent firms from shipping jobs overseas, impressing 51-year-old Norman MacLeod, who was laid off three days ago from a manufacturing company. During his next stop at a pizza parlor in Newport, the Romney campaign picked up the tab for all of the restaurant’s patrons and sent the candidate to the counter to order a small Hawaiian pie for himself and his “sweetheart,” Ann.

“Put some olives on there too, will ya?” he asked the cashier. “Isn’t that strange?”

Settling into a booth over lunch, he assured a retired Vietnam veteran that he would keep the Social Security program intact for those nearing retirement. And he parried with skeptics like independent voter Holly Sirois, who clearly didn’t appreciate the horde of cameras in her neighborhood.

“So Mitt, has anybody besides news cameramen been able to get close enough to you to ask you anything?” she yelled to the former Massachusetts governor as he chatted with supporters.

Romney invited her to ask her question.

“I don’t know if you’re conservative enough to hold the line against Democrats,” Sirois said. “Can you reassure me that you actually are?”

“Well there’s a little state south of here that, you know, called Massachusetts and a Legislature there — 85 percent Democrat,” he replied. “I was in office there four years, didn’t raise taxes, cut taxes 19 times, balanced the budget every year for four years,” he said.