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THE VILLAGES, Fla. -- Mitt Romney wound down his Sunshine State campaign here Monday night on a positive note, choosing not to mention Newt Gingrich even once.

That stands in stark contrast to how Gingrich wrapped up his efforts in Florida, which have centered on roundly rejecting Romney's tactics. After coming up short in South Carolina, Romney turned loose a slate of surrogates who thrashed the former speaker daily, poking holes in his record and lashing at his character.

It apparently worked. Romney is heading into Tuesday's contest with double-digit leads in a spate of polls released in the past few days. He said on NBC's “Today” show Monday morning that he expects to be the GOP nominee. And so Romney once again trained his fire exclusively on President Obama.

A rally before several thousand people at this large retirement community Monday night began with an introduction of Ann Romney by The Villages vice president of communications, Gary Lester. He called her "a lady who has always been proud of her country." The line was a dig at first lady Michelle Obama, who took some heat when campaigning in 2008 for saying that she felt really proud of her country for the first time.

Ann Romney then introduced one of her grandsons, Parker Mitt Romney. When asked to comment on the crowd, he said, "It looks like Papa's going to win."

Also on stage were several other Romney family members, members of Congress and state officials. The candidate stayed off stage to await his introduction, and when his moment arrived, he bounded on stage, shouting, "It's a beautiful day at The Villages! It's always a great day at The Villages!"

In his remarks, he avoided Gingrich and intraparty Republican strife, keeping his focus on jobs, the economy and the president. And as he wrapped up, he talked about how the country reminds him of the song "America the Beautiful" -- an observation he often makes on the stump. But this time, he sang the song. And the crowd joined in.

Just before the event began, the campaign cancelled Romney’s single campaign appearance for Tuesday. The image of a packed crowd and a pumped up candidate was surely the one the campaign wanted to leave in the electorate’s mind before Romney gives an Election Night speech -- likely a celebratory one -- in Tampa.