CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney bounded onto the small stage set up inside an assembly room for spacecraft payloads Friday and acknowledged the cheers of supporters before launching into criticism of his opponent -- President Barack Obama.

Even though he is only days away from going head-to-head with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the winner-take-all Florida primary -- with 50 convention delegates at stake in Tuesday's vote -- Mr. Romney is looking further down the road. To November.

"How about that debate last night? Wasn't that terrific?" Mr. Romney asked the estimated 400 people gathered at Astrotech Corp., near the Kennedy Space Center. "I've had the chance to be in a lot of debates, and that one was fun."

The Thursday night debate on the campus of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville was widely seen as Mr. Gingrich's last opportunity to convince Floridians that he is more suited to the presidency than the former Massachusetts governor is. But the forum, which included former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, failed to produce a clear winner.

True, the two front-runners traded blows, but unlike in the South Carolina debates -- where Mr. Gingrich's confrontational spirit connected with voters -- his support in the Sunshine State appears to have leveled off, with polls showing Mr. Romney ahead by several percentage points.

A new Quinnipiac poll, conducted Jan. 19-26, shows Mr. Romney leading Mr. Gingrich by 38 percent to 29 percent among likely GOP voters in Florida. A poll taken days earlier and released Wednesday showed Mr. Romney barely ahead of Mr. Gingrich, 36 percent to 34 percent.

Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich both spent part of Friday stumping in Miami, each with an eye on the significant Hispanic population that will participate Tuesday. But while Mr. Gingrich was targeting his fellow Republican, Mr. Romney was aiming at the White House.