With Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rolling into town for a huge rally this evening, a high ranking Romney official is telling Colorado Peak Politics “we will win Colorado.”

Heretofore, Romney officials have been cautious about predicting outright victory in the state, happy to see polls moving in their direction, but avoiding any kind of clear declarations.

With early ballot returns trending Republican and an endless array of public polling showing the state swinging in Romney’s direction, folks on Team Romney are beginning to see Colorado as a strong pickup opportunity.

There is no clearer sign of Team Romney’s confidence than tonight’s joint rally with Romney and Paul Ryan at Red Rocks. It’s a rare event with both Romney and Ryan, but what makes it all the more important is the high expectations surrounding the rally.

Red Rocks can pack in nearly 10,000 people, meaning Romney needs to assemble his biggest crowd in Colorado to date to fill the stadium. We have no doubt he will. His advance and political team wouldn’t have picked such a high-profile, expectation-setting venue if they didn’t think he could fill it.

While Team Romney is bubbling over with confidence in this great state, Team Hopenchange isn’t quite so mirthful. Obama Senior Adviser David Plouffe hinted to the National Journal last week that they may be abandoning Colorado as a firewall state, unable to hold back Romney’s momentum.

Two weeks from today, Colorado looks set to correct its terrible mistake from 2008.