KNOXVILLE, TN-- Mitt Romney took a daylong break from a marathon Ohio campaign swing to make two appearances in southern states his own campaign advisers admit he's unlikely to win, for one simple reason: He's hunting Super Tuesday delegates.

Romney made quick stops in an Atlanta suburb and in Knoxville, Tennessee today -- strategically selected locations in states Romney advisers say he is unlikely to carry, but where the campaign sees delegate pickup opportunities.

"I don't know if we have any realistic expectation of beating Newt Gingrich in his home state," Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters traveling with the candidate today. "But we look to taking some delegates out. Same thing in Tennessee."

In Georgia, Romney's team has targeted downtown and suburban Atlanta districts, where Romney performed well four years ago, with one senior adviser comparing the demographics of suburban Atlanta to those of Oakland County -- Romney's home county in Michigan -- which he won with fully fifty percent of the vote last week.

Today in Snellville, east of Atlanta, Romney drew an overflow crowd for a pancake brunch that morphed into a town hall. He told voters in the overflow room he felt good about his fifth-straight victory in Washington state Saturday, and later gamely passed out breakfast to voters -- never serving up more than subtle criticism of his republican rivals, and focusing his ire on President Obama.

In Tennessee, Romney has relied on deep bench of establishment support, including a clutch of congressmen, Senator Lamar Alexander and Governor Bill Haslem, to buoy his campaign's efforts. Former Senator Rick Santorum, now widely considered to be Romney's chief rival for the nomination also failed to get on the ballot in some Tennessee districts, further opening the door for Romney to slip away with southern delegates.

Today's campaign event in Knoxville was his first public event in the state this cycle. Introduced by Haslem, Romney was in a confident mood, congratulating the state's famous basketball team, the Lady Vols, and reminiscing about the Davy Crockett theme song from his boyhood.

Romney's confidence pervaded campaign staff, with Fehrnstrom describing the candidate as "thrilled" by the Washington state victory, and brandishing statistics about the New Hampshire and Florida contests to fend off the narrative.

"If you look at New Hampshire, Mitt Romney won by a bigger percentage than Ronald Reagan, and I don’t remember anybody saying Ronald Reagan had a problem connecting with people," Fehrnstrom said. "You look at Florida; Mitt Romney got more votes than any Republican ever in a presidential primary."

But even as the campaign works to highlight the importance of winning delegates, Fehrnstrom told reporters that in the end, the way to silence Romney's critics who say he cannot connect would be simple: win.

"We’re just going to keep focusing on racking up wins, and I think that answers the question," Fehrnstrom said.

MESA, Ariz. -- Returning to the campaign trail for the first time since claiming small, if welcome, victories in Maine and at the CPAC straw poll, Mitt Romney tonight unveiled a retooled stump speech in which he drew broad biographical contrasts with his Republican rivals, and devoted more time than usual to his record as Massachusetts governor.

"I'm sure there are some issues here and there where we can point out distinctions," Romney said of his rivals for the GOP nomination. "But perhaps the greatest distinction is what we've done during our lives, our life experiences ... Congressman Paul was a doctor, then went into government, but the other guys have spent their life entirely in government, and in my view it's helpful to have been involved in two businesses, an Olympics and a state ...  and to have a chance to run those as an executive."

"We elected in President Obama someone who had never run anything, who had never been a leader. We're not going to do that in the Republican Party. Let's not nominate someone who hasn't done anything and has not been a leader," Romney continued.

Romney's speech tonight before a crowd of at least two thousand vocal supporters outside Phoenix seemed to build on his address to the CPAC conference in Washington last week, in which he looked to bolster his conservative credentials in large part by highlighting elements of his record as governor of Massachusetts, which traditionally takes a back seat on the stump to his record as a businessman.

Romney ran through a laundry list of accomplishments from his tenure as Massachusetts governor, including everything from balancing budgets and improving the school system -- to more controversial battles like those over illegal immigration and same-sex marriage, which Massachusetts' Supreme Court legalized during Romney's term.

"I led the fight to get an amendment to our constitution to reverse that ruling," Romney said of the court's decision to allow same sex marriage, echoing his CPAC speech. "We missed by one vote. Even in a legislature that's 85 percent Democrat. But we went to make sure that we didn't have our same sex marriage go throughout the country and we were able to enforce -- I think it was a 1913 law -- that kept Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of same sex marriage."

""We made sure we enforced immigration laws by empowering our state police to have the capacity to work with ICE to get those who are here illegally out of our state," Romney told the crowd here to loud applause. That policy, however, was never implemented, as the incoming Democratic administration quickly repealed it after Romney left office.

Romney's speech tonight did not just include new thematic elements, but also continued Romney's news-of-the-day attacks on President Obama. Today, it was the budget in his crosshairs.

"He unfortunately came out with another trillion dollar deficit," Romney said over the boos of the crowd." And if I recall, he said back in his election he said that he was going to cut in half the deficit by the end of the first term. Well he did just the opposite - he doubled it by the end of his first term."

One element of Romney's stump speech not to change? His recitation of his favorite lyrics of "America the Beautiful," which the audience seemed to be expecting. As Romney began to talk about the song, several members of the crowd shouted loudly: "Sing it!

Manchester, NH -- Whats the difference between Tim Pawlenty the candidate and Tim Pawlenty the surrogate?

A lot.

The former presidential candidate who frequently faced criticism for being dull and unable to connect with voters has established himself as one of Mitt Romney's top surrogates by being the exact opposite.

Whether on the trail, in the spin room after debates or speaking with voters, Pawlenty has used his new role to let his personality show in ways that rarely came through in the days leading up to the Iowa Straw Poll.

That charisma was on display Sunday night during a brief swing through Romney's New Hampshire headquarters when he spoke to volunteers working the phones.

"Go deep," he told a Romney staffer after catching a football when he walked in the door.  The former Minnesota governor wound up and failed to connect with his intended receiver, instead narrowly missing a campaign sign hanging on the adjacent wall.

He then gave a pep talk to the young volunteers making calls just two days before the first-in-nation primary, starting with a joke about the person he described as Minneapolis' most famous son, NBA player Kris Humphries.  The former Minnesota governor took a jab at the basketball player's short lived marriage to celebrity Kim Kardashian.

"Don't feel too bad for Kris Humphries. His marriage lasted longer than my presidential campaign," said Pawlenty.

After thanking the volunteers for their hard work, he asked for some advice.

"I just got one last question, I have an 18-year-old, I have a 15-year-old, they listen to all this music that's not of my generation.  Not including Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or any of that, give me something that I can go back that's new that they won't know about that I can say check out this person or band so it looks like I know what I'm talking about," he asked.

Perhaps a sign of how attune he is to popular culture, no one was able to give him a new suggestion.  He brushed off the various suggestions of top 40 artists, shaking his head and saying "that's established."

In what turned out to be the final days of his candidacy, Pawlenty barnstormed through Iowa, holding town hall after town hall, sticking around to interact with voters only briefly before racing off to his next event.  As a candidate, he could not get over the characterization that he was uninspiring, a claim passionately dismissed by those who knew him from his day in the Minnesota state legislature.

After posing for a picture with the spritely volunteers, he requested "a funny one," telling everyone to stand back-to-back with arms crossed as the camera flashed.  He then grabbed a sucker out of a bowl sitting on the table and made some calls to New Hampshire residents urging them to vote for his new boss.

Earlier in the day Pawlenty stumped with Romney, and will be on hand at the former Massachusetts governor's victory party on Tuesday.

EXETER, NH -- Under the championship wrestling banners lining the walls of a high school gym here in Exeter tonight, Mitt Romney and Chris Christie got into verbal wrestling matches of their own with three separate sets of Occupy protesters.

"This is our regular group here," Romney said drily when a small group of Occupiers began to chant "Mitt Kills Jobs" midway through his speech.

As the group was being escorted out, Romney said it was "wonderful" to live in a country where people can express their views, but that he wished they would do it with "a little bit more courtesy."

When the protesters interrupted Christie minutes later with a similar chant, he was less accommodating.

"Really?" Christie asked, when the chants of "Christie Kills Jobs" began. "You know something may go down tonight but it ain't gonna be jobs, sweetheart."

Christie was interrupted just has he began to rail against a Washington culture of division, which he said was guided by President Obama, and he used the disruption to further his argument.

"I doubt he is, but I hope the president’s watching," Christie said. "I have a message for you Mr President: This is the type of disoriented anger your cynicism and your division is causing in our country. Bring our country together stop dividing it Mr. President."

Christie's clear delight at dealing with the protesters energized a crowd that the local police estimated to be more than 800 strong. That turnout number, if accurate, would make tonight's rally one of Romney's largest of the campaign thus far. But even as he shook hands with supporters who spilled over to an overflow room, Romney was confronted by one last Occupy protester, who continued to needle about the causes of the recession, Romney even as staff attempted to guide the candidate away. Romney instead turned back to face the protester head-on.

"You know what? This president has caused a deepening recession and is responsible for 25 million Americans being out of work or stopped working or not being able to get jobs," Romney said, before walking away. "And let me tell you, this president's been a failure and that's one of the reasons I'm running is to help you get a job."