Mitt Romney: It'd 'shock people' if I won Pennsylvania

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told donors at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday that it would "shock people" if he took Pennsylvania, but later declared at a suburban rally that he would win the state.

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

Romney seemed to concede the challenge at a morning fundraiser 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," he said.

Romney 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 said.

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

As Romney delivered a stump speech critical of 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.

In Washington, Obama warned supporters about becoming too complacent with six weeks left before the election. He joked that Democrats tend to believe either that the "sky is falling" or that "everything is great."

"This is going to be a close race right down to the wire," he told about 90 donors gathered at the Washington home of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

His remarks come amid public polls that show him gaining advantages in some key battleground states. It also comes months after anxious Democrats worried Obama would not be able to keep up with Romney's fundraising.

In a day partly devoted to a fundraising blitz for himself and other Democrats, Obama also offered themes of political unity.

"I don't know how many folks will vote for me this time around," Obama told the group of donors. "But I say the same thing to them [as in 2008]: I will be your president, too."

The message came as Obama continues to seize on a leaked video in which Romney said that 47 percent of people "will vote for the president no matter what" and described them as people who don't want to take personal responsibility.