Romney Campaign Tries to Put an Optimistic Face on a Disappointing Night DENVER - Four years ago, Mitt Romney trounced Senator John McCain in the Colorado caucuses, and beat him squarely in Minnesota, as well. But on Tuesday night, as the final state came in - Colorado for Rick Santorum, with 40.2 percent of the vote to Mr. Romney's 34.9 percent - Mr. Romney could not manage a repeat, or even something close. So, just what happened? To hear the Romney campaign tell it, if Mr. Romney won those states in 2008 by being the conservative alternative to Mr. McCain, this time around, Mr. Santorum has fashioned himself as the conservative alternative to Mr. Romney. "I think that we were benefiting from being someone who was seen as a conservative alternative to someone who was leading the race at the time," said Stuart Stevens, a top Romney strategist, seeking to explain how Mr. Romney's fortunes had so reversed here in Colorado. And Rick Santorum spent a lot of time there and really worked it, to his credit. It's a repeat in a mini way of what he did in Iowa, and that's to his credit. The Romney "victory" party had a subdued feel from the beginning. The room felt smaller than usual, and was still feeling up as voters and members of the media gathered around the big screen TV to watch Mr. Santorum give his actual victory speech. After Mr. Romney, who spoke at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, had left the room - to a trail of blue sparkles from a glitter-bomb - a weary-looking Mr. Stevens stood in the back of the room, trying to put his best face forward. On big election nights, scores of Romney aides usually prowl the room, mixing with enthusiastic donors and supporters, but Mr. Stevens was the main representative on Tuesday night. Colorado is an important general election state, and he sought to play down the notion that Mr. Romney's poor showing here in the primary might be an indication of how he would fare against President Obama in the general election. "I think we'll do well here against Obama," he said. Colorado's a tough state now, it's going to be in play. It'll be a tough state. He also said that the Romney campaign would likely be rolling out "clear contrasts" against Mr. Santorum. In Romneyland, "contrasts" - at least as they illustrated them against Newt Gingrich in Florida - is code for an all-out, aggressive, and often negative line of attack, which already started this week against Mr. Santorum in surrogate appearances, conference calls and emails. "I mean, he's someone who's been involved in Washington for a very long time, and that's a completely different approach than Governor Romney," Mr. Stevens said. I just don't think it's a time when people are looking to Washington to solve problems with Washington. Mr. Steven's portrait of Mr. Santorum as a Washington insider offers a likely preview into the attacks the Romney campaign will roll out going forward. Tuesday night, back in the lobby of their hotel, they were already at the ready with a long list of Mr. Santorum's Washington vulnerabilities. Then, looking exhausted, two of Mr. Romney's top aides finally went up to bed.