Romney offers different assessments on winning Pa.

Mitt Romney told donors at a Philadelphia fund-raiser today it would "shock people" if he took Pennsylvania, but later declared he would win the state at a larger suburban rally for the Republican presidential candidate.

The different assessments come at a time when polls show President Obama pulling ahead by double digits over Romney Pennsylvania, a state whose 20 electoral votes were once considered to be up for grabs.

Romney seemed to concede the challenge at a fund-raiser this morning at the Union League in Philadelphia, where about 200 donors paid up to $50,000 to attend.

"We really would shock people if early in the evening of Nov. 6 it looked like Pennsylvania was going to come our way and actually did come our way," Romney said.

He was more optimistic before an animated crowd of suburban Philadelphia Republicans at the Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne.

"We're going to take Pennsylvania," he promised.

If any group is likely to deliver Pennsylvania to the former Massachusetts governor, it will be the fiscal-conservative, more socially liberal Republicans in Philadelphia's suburbs. For them, Romney's politics and persona appear tailor made.

A crowd filled with well-heeled, older suburbanites and students in sweats from nearby Villanova and Cabrini colleges packed an assembly hall on the academy's campus, chanting in unison "Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!"

Meanwhile, blue-blazered, loafer donning GOP staffers dipped and dodged through the crowd, yelling into the radios hidden inside their shirt cuffs.

As Romney delivered a stump speech critical of Democrats's planned military cuts, Obama's policy in the Middle East and the president's record on the economy, the crowd hooted and hollered with an excitement not seen in his past campaign stops in the region.

"I know why you're here," he addressed them. "You're concerned about the road the president's got America on. I know where it leads. It leads to where Greece and Italy and Spain are. I'm going to put this country on a very different path."

In introducing the GOP presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) incurred the momentary wrath of the crowd when his description of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, as a "nice guy" was met with raucous booing.

Toomey quickly corrected. "Here's my point," he said. "My informed judgment is that Harry Reid is much better suited to be the minority leader."

But the line that garnered the greatest response came from Romney himself, who vowed to push through the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Republican pet project.

Earlier, about 30 protesters were on hand when Romney arrived for the gathering at the Union League's landmark building on South Broad Street. One apparent supporter carried a sign saying, "Bless Bain Capital."

Organizers had said they hoped to raise $3.5 million at the fund-raiser.

Romney's visit to the Philadelphia area followed mounting speculation that Pennsylvania may have fallen off his campaign's target list of winnable battleground states.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania swing is Romney's first visit to the state since July 17, when he held a rally in Westmoreland County and a fund-raiser in Pittsburgh. He has not done any extensive campaigning east of the Susquehanna River since June 16.