Alternately
promising and pleading, Republican Mitt Romney on Monday
asked Michigan residents to vote for him in a primary
election that could either rejuvenate or mortally
wound his presidential campaign.
Before a cheering
crowd of high schoolers and later the more somber
members of the Detroit Economic Club, the Michigan-born
Romney pledged to take better care of the state as
president than rivals Mike Huckabee and John McCain.
Romney finished
second to each in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire
primary, respectively, and a hometown loss to either on
Tuesday would be hard to overcome as the nominating
contest moves to South Carolina and Florida, both of
which are locations where the former Massachusetts
governor trails in the polls.
''The pessimists
are wrong,'' Romney told the Economic Club, leveling a
subtle jab at McCain, who has said that some lost auto
industry jobs will never be recovered. ''The auto
industry and all its jobs do not have to be lost. And
I am one man who will work to transform the industry and
save those jobs.''
Complicating
Romney's task is that Democrats and undeclared voters can
participate in Michigan's Republican primary. That could
boost a candidate like McCain, who has proved
attractive to non-Republicans. The Arizona senator was
tied with Romney in one weekend poll but trailed him
by 5 percentage points in another.
Huckabee, a
one-time Southern Baptist minister and the former governor
of Arkansas, was third in both surveys but hoped to
stage a surprise finish with support from Christian
conservatives.
Romney and his
top advisers insist he will carry on regardless of
Tuesday's outcome, noting that he won the Wyoming caucuses
and has accumulated more votes than any of the GOP
candidates in the early contests.
''I'm confident
I'm going to do real well with Republicans. I'm confident
I'll do just fine and hopefully real well with independents.
I don't know how Democrats will vote in a Republican
primary. That's not something I'm terribly used to,''
he said after eyeing glittering new cars at the North
American International Auto Show.
''I believe that,
overall, I'm going to win, and one thing's for sure:
I'm not going to stop at the end of Michigan. Win or lose,
I'm going on to South Carolina and Nevada and all the
way through February 5, and hopefully beyond,'' Romney
said.
His schedule
calls for a full day of activities in South Carolina on
Wednesday, but his plans after that haven't been released.
Romney is aiming for a win in Nevada, whose caucuses
also are on January 19, when South Carolina
Republicans vote.
To bolster his
chances in Michigan, Romney has largely avoided the
critical advertising he aired against Huckabee in Iowa and
McCain in New Hampshire. Instead, he has relied on a
homey commercial showing him with his father, George
Romney, the former head of American Motors and a
three-term governor of Michigan during the 1960s.
Romney, 60, also
has said his personal history, as well as his
background as a business consultant and venture capitalist,
give him the skills to help reverse the job loss that
has given the state a nation-leading 7.4% unemployment
rate.
''If I am elected
as president of this great land, I will not need a
compass to tell me where Michigan is, and I won't need to be
briefed on what's going on in the auto industry or
what's happening to Michigan's economy,'' he said to
cheers at the Economic Club. ''You see, I've got
Michigan in my DNA, I've got it in my heart, and I've got
cars in my bloodstream.''
Speaking of the
auto industry, he said, ''I'm not open to a bailout, but
I am open to a workout. Washington should not be a
benefactor, but it can and must be a partner.''
Romney called on
the federal government to stop unfunded mandates like
non-negotiated increases in fuel economy standards, and
instead sought greater investment in research and
technology as well as workforce training
programs.
He also said he
would convene an auto industry summit within his first
100 days, warning that the ills affecting auto manufacturing
could spread to the aerospace, pharmaceutical, and
other industries if unaddressed.
''I hear people
from time to time say, 'Well, that's Michigan's problem,'
or they say something like, 'Well, it's the car companies,
they just brought it on themselves.' But that's where
they're wrong. What Michigan is feeling will be felt
by the entire nation, unless we win the economic
battle here,'' he said.
Earlier in the
day Romney assumed the mantle of motivational speaker as
he addressed roughly 3,000 students, teachers, and parents
at Grand Blanc High School.
Romney described
life as similar to the TV game show Let's Make a
Deal, although he said it is possible to know what's
behind the curtain on some of the most difficult
choices that will confront them.
Completing high
school, he said, will result in an extra $1 million in
earnings over their career. Getting married before having
children, as he also tells adult audiences, will have
similar positive results.
''There's a great
plus to having a mom and dad associated with the
development and nurturement of a child,'' he told the crowd.
While few in the
audience were eligible to vote Tuesday, 16-year-old
Aaron Ducharme, said he planned to encourage his parents to
support Romney.
''I really liked
the Michigan part, about how he wants to bring the state
back economically,'' Ducharme said. (Glen Johnson, AP)
