US NEWS: Romney Wins Michigan, Scrambles GOP Primary

I thought this was a balanced review on Romney’s win in the Michigan Primary and the status of the GOP without a clear frontrunner.

From US News and World Report

January 16, 2008

Campaign News 

US News-Three presidential nominating contests, three different Republican winners. According to CNN, with 100% of precincts reporting, native son Mitt Romney triumphed, taking 39% of the vote, followed by John McCain, 30%; Mike Huckabee, 16%; Ron Paul, 6%; Fred Thompson, 4%; and Rudy Giuliani, 3%. The Detroit News reports, “‘Tonight is a win for optimism over Washington-style pessimism,’ Romney told a cheering crowd at a Southfield hotel where he had awaited the results. McCain, who defeated Romney just a week before in New Hampshire, was campaigning Tuesday night in South Carolina. ‘For a minute there in New Hampshire I thought this campaign might be getting easier,’” McCain said, adding, “But you know what? We’ve gotten pretty good at doing things the hard way too. And I think we’ve shown them, we don’t mind a fight.”
      The economy (Michigan has one of the nation’s worst) appears to have put Romney over the top. The New York Times reports that “just as important as Mr. Romney’s personal ties was that he found himself, after setbacks in Iowa and New Hampshire, in an economically downtrodden state that has shed millions of jobs. The economic woes here played neatly into his strengths as a candidate, and his newly retooled message centered around his private sector experience and a promise to bring change to Washington.” USA Today notes, “Given four choices, half of Michigan’s GOP primary voters surveyed picked the economy as the top issue facing the nation while one in five picked Iraq, one in seven immigration and one in 10 terrorism.” The Wall Street Journal says, “Despite the momentum from” McCain’s “comeback win in New Hampshire, enough voters didn’t come around to his plan to restore the state’s ailing economy, which relied heavily on long-term strategies such as education, job retraining and investment in new technologies.”
      The Michigan outcome is seen as having two major results: keeping Romney’s campaign alive after a pair of disappointing outcomes in Iowa and New Hampshire, and showing that there is no clear GOP frontrunner. The Washington Post reports on its front page, the “surprisingly easy win…vaults Romney back into contention and reaffirms the sharpened campaign message that he debuted several days ago: an attack on Washington and an emphasis on the need for dramatic change in the way politics is practiced.” USA Today reports, “The outcome gives Romney a ‘jolt of caffeine,’ said John Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College near Los Angeles. ‘It’s an opportunity to move on.’” The Wall Street Journal says “many considered Michigan a must-win for” Romney.
      The Washington Times says Romney’s win “further muddles the Republican race” and that none of the three winners “has built lasting momentum.” In a front-page story, the Los Angeles Times describes the GOP primary race as one “in which candidates seemingly win and then lose the leadership spot each week.” Under the headline “No GOP Anchor In Sight,” the New York Times also says Romney’s “convincing victory…means three very different states — with dissimilar electorates driven by distinctive sets of priorities — have embraced three separate candidates in search of someone who can lead the party into a tough election and beyond President Bush.”
      In a very pointed analysis piece, AP’s Ron Fournier calls Romney’s win “a defeat for authenticity in politics.” Romney “pandered to voters, distorted his opponents’ record and continued to show why he’s the most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate.” Meanwhile, “the man who spoke hard truths to Michigan lost. Of all the reasons…McCain deserved a better result Tuesday night, his gamble on the economy stands out. The Arizona senator had the temerity to tell voters that a candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs ‘are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America.’”