14-Year Old: Romney: 'The Only One Who Can Win'

If you're down south looking for cogent, local political analysis, you should track down 14-year-old Gabriel Martinez of Hialeah, Fla. Martinez, attending a campaign event for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wasn't always a supporter, but now says Romney is "the only one that can win" the general presidential election.

In about two minutes, Martinez broke down the race and catalogued the attributes and flaws of each of the remaining GOP candidates – former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Romney, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

[Mitt Romney Works Gingrich, Obama in Florida.]

"The thing about Santorum is that he's a little bit too right for the whole entire country. He won't win Reagan Democrats and independents," Martinez says. "Ron Paul just won't win as much as support as Romney can. Newt Gingrich has got a lot of baggage."

Martinez says he's a former supporter of businessman Herman Cain, but was turned off by the sexual harassment and marital infidelity allegations.

"I like some of his ideas, until I saw the thing about the woman," he says. But he wasn't swayed by Cain's recent endorsement of Gingrich.

"I guess his ideas and Gingrich's ideas were close enough but Gingrich – if Gingrich wins the primary there's no way he'll be president; he'll get destroyed," Martinez says.

Though he's too young to vote, his top concerns that of many Republican voters: electability.

[Mitt Romney Holds 'All-American' Event in Naples.]

He prognosticates that Florida, a swing state, will vote Republican in the presidential election this fall.

"Everybody saw what happened last time, Florida voted Democrat, and I guess we just say, four more years of this?" he says, adding that the biggest problem facing his own local community and the country is unemployment.

Martinez also says the eventual GOP nominee's vice presidential selection could make that lift easier. He suggested the names of several Hispanic-American GOP leaders, including popular Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Mexican Gov. Susana Martinez, as well as Rep. Alan West, a Florida Republican.

"We can't get a vice presidential candidate from a state that we already know we're going to win. We can't get a vice presidential candidate from Alabama," he says. "We need a vice presidential candidate from a toss-up or liberal state so we might take a little bit of votes away or we might even win the state."

Rene Martinez, Gabriel's father, says his son is a "political junkie."

"It's a personal passion, he's always on the internet," the elder Martinez says. He himself has supported Romney since the last presidential election because of his economic policies and is optimistic the former businessman can "get the economy back rolling again."

• See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates.
• Primary Primer: 5 Things to Know about Florida.
• Newt Gingrich's South Carolina Win Proves 2012 Race Still Wide Open.

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