Romney Works to Put Skeptics’ Doubts to Rest

    As evidence that his campaign is gaining strength, Mr. Romney and his aides cited a recent New Hampshire poll that showed him leading in the state, although rival campaigns have challenged the accuracy of the survey. They also pointed to a new poll in Michigan, another early state, where Mr. Romney grew up, which shows him leading there as well.

    He made his first appearance last week on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. Mr. Romney is also on the cover of the new Time magazine, scheduled to hit newsstands on Friday, and will be the subject of a feature on “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

    He tweaked his stump speech this week in what appeared to be a fresh attempt to distinguish himself from Mr. McCain and Mr. Giuliani on social issues. In Iowa, Mr. Romney introduced to audiences the metaphor of a three-legged stool, reflecting what he described as core conservative Republican principles: “strong military, strong economy, strong families.”

    Beyond trying to gain an advantage on social issues, he is emphasizing that he would have a muscular approach to national security. He highlights his successful business career to make a case that he knows how to manage the economy. And he is taking a conservative stance on immigration, opposing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, an issue that could prove troublesome for Mr. McCain, who worked for such a route in the Senate last year.

    Mr. Romney mounted a new advertisement recently in Iowa, New Hampshire and on national cable networks that plays up his call to increase the size of the military. Another commercial that features him wielding his veto pen in Massachusetts continues to run nationally.

    In his continued courtship of evangelical voters, Mr. Romney’s campaign is dispatching Mark DeMoss, an evangelical publicist whose clients include the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham, and Jay Sekulow, a prominent evangelical activist and lawyer, to meet with conservative Christian leaders in South Carolina, Iowa and elsewhere.

    Mr. Romney’s basic strategy is to try to use strong showings in the early voting primary states, many of which have large numbers of conservative voters, to slingshot him to the front of the Republican field.