Mitt Romney appears destined to win Florida's Republican primary on Tuesday. For that he can thank a potent mix of brutal attack ads against his opponent, a low-risk road-tested message and oodles of cash.
Whether it is an address for veterans, a grass roots rally or a chat at a spaceship factory, Team Romney's script is roughly the same.
Dressed in shirt sleeves, the candidate bounds (on time) onto an expertly set stage to the twang and jangle of patriotic country rock.
His remarks are peppered with pledges of undying love for the homeland's "amber waves of grain," and criticism of President Barack Obama's mismanagement of the economy.
It is a message that deliberately evokes Midland, Texas more than his home state of Massachusetts; more Main Street bakery than Wall Street board room.
Occasionally there is a disparaging word or two for his rival Newt Gingrich and a play for the votes of Florida's most important voting blocs: Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Tea Party conservatives, NASA contractors, the military, the elderly or those suffering under the state's high rate of home foreclosures.
But Romney's supporters get a more or less steady diet of politics not policy.
But like a duck moving through water, it is the frantic movement out of plain view that really sets the direction of his campaign.
After being roundly beaten by Gingrich in South Carolina, Romney's campaign has turned the screw on his nearest rival through a series of blistering campaign ads, while keeping the candidate on message and presidential.
In the sprawling Sunshine State where there are 10 major television markets, Romney has massively out-muscled Gingrich in advertising spending.
His campaign and its supporters have reportedly doled out $15.3 million on ads to Gingrich's $3.4 million.
One hard-hitting spot used television news footage from 1997 when Gingrich was reprimanded by a House ethics committee, part of a broader effort to define Gingrich as an unethical, egotistical blowhard.
In a mail-shot released on the eve of Tuesday's primary, Gingrich's campaign was accused of suffering from "an overdose of grandiose" and of comparing himself to presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and both Roosevelts as well as the Wright brothers.
"We were being whaled on by speaker Gingrich and didn't respond well in South Carolina. So we decided to respond," Romney said in an interview with NBC on Monday.
"Secondly, we made it clear if people want change in Washington you have to bring in someone from outside Washington. Both the change in tactic as well as the message have had a real impact in Florida."
Senior Romney officials complain the campaign does not get the credit it deserves for its policies, and point to speeches like one of foreign affairs given in October at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina.
Then Romney sketched out his diagnosis of the threats and challenges facing the United States -- from Russia to China, Iran to Pakistan.
But even those remarks offered little in the way of prescriptions beyond pursuing policy clarity, promoting open markets and applying "the full spectrum of hard and soft power."
According to Chris Palko, media coordinator at the Smart Media political consultancy, Romney's strategy fits a pattern for frontrunners.
"You see this a lot of the time, some candidates stay safe and seem to come from central casting," he said.
Romney's safely-safely approach has contrasted sharply with Gingrich's grassroots and run-and-gun approach.
While famously suggesting that the moon should be the 51st state, Gingrich events while drawing large crowds have been under-produced and plagued by poor time-keeping.
If Romney does win, it is likely to be seen as evidence of the old theory that television and cash, not retail politics, is the winning formula for the Sunshine State.
"Florida is just too large and there are too many different markets," said Stephen Craig, head of the political campaigning program at the University of Florida.
"If you can't afford to do it through the airwaves then you are not going to be communicating with Florida voters."
This time round Romney had the money to invest, and it appears to have paid dividends.