The Mitt! campaign lowers expectations:

Mitt Romney, a dominant favorite in New Hampshire just weeks ago, said Sunday that a "close second" to Arizona Sen. John McCain would be a significant feat on Tuesday. The almost frantic downsizing of expectations for the former Massachusetts governor came as the candidate and his staff are publicly and privately preparing to explain away what would be a disheartening loss and shift to a last-ditch strategy predicated on his ability to outlast and outspend his rivals, according to sources inside the campaign.

[...]

Romney said a close second-place finish would be impressive considering the attention McCain has paid the state over the past eight years.

Which is nothing compared to how much Mitt has paid to get the people of New Hampshire to love him :

WMUR General Manager Jeff Bartlett is one of the chief beneficiaries of such political ad wars. In an interview at his station, Bartlett noted that Romney was the first campaign to go on air. “Generally, you don’t get a lot of heavy spending until July or August,” he said. Romney went up in February 2007, six months earlier in the cycle than the first ad in 2003.

Since then, Romney’s campaign has spent more than $3.6 million on advertising on WMUR alone, running 3,600 ads, according to ad buys and Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. Scala, who has been tracking ad buys on WMUR, said that translates into more than 10 ads a day in the 314 days since the first Romney ads went up.

The former Massachusetts governor’s ad buys could amount to more than three times the money that will be spent by his closest competitors. By Tuesday’s primary, Arizona Sen. McCain, who is leading the polls, will spend just over $1 million; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will spend just under a million.

Paul, a Texas congressman, will top out at about $270,000, barely more than what Romney spends in a week.

As of the third quarter campaign filings, Romney had collected close to $63 million, but $17 million of that had come out of his own pocket (in what looks like a loan) and most of that $63 million is spent. Everyone knows that Romney has a lot of money but if he can’t buy himself a win in tiny Iowa or New Hampshire he’s going to have to bankrupt himself to afford the high rent districts in New York and California.

That’s no way to run a business…