Michigan Results

Here they are:

Mitt Romney- 39%
John McCain- 30%
Mike Huckabee- 16%
Ron Paul- 6%
Fred Thompson- 4%
Rudy Giuliani- 3%
Uncommitted- 2%
Duncan Hunter- 0%

Mitt Romney definitely deserved this win. Though the MSM, certainly no fans of Romney, will attempt to write this win off as a result of the fact that Romney's father was a governor of the state, this fact is simply not so. First of all, George Romney (Mitt's father) is not remembered fondly in Michigan and any effect his governorship had on Mitt's campaign would likely be negative. Secondly, McCain won this state in 2000 and still had strong residual support. Lastly, Romney was able to win despite a flood of Democrats and Independents (by-and-large McCain voters) that voted in the open Republican primary because no delegates were being awarded on the Democratic side and Hillary Clinton was the only major candidate on the ballot.

The real question in need of an answer after last night's results is how Mitt was able to win in a state that he had boasted only statistically insignificant leads in all year long after two damaging losses to his top rivals in the state, but was not able to win the states of Iowa and New Hampshire where he lead consistently and by large margins throughout most of the year. The answer lies in the platform on which Mitt ran in each of these states. In Iowa Mitt ran as religious, morally conservative Mitt. In New Hampshire Mitt ran as the change candidate. In Michigan, however, Mitt ran on the platform most closely resembling the platform on which he ran as Governor of Massachusetts-- that of pragmatic, Mr-Fixit Mitt. In Massachusetts, and now Michigan, this Mitt Romney was able to draw in thousands of moderates, independents, and Democrats while still maintaining strong support from Republicans.

Whether or not Mitt's sudden about-face on social issues was genuine is irrelevant. The fact is if Mitt had remained true to his 2002 positions (those which I believe he truly supports), he would have won New Hampshire and won even more handily in Michigan. He still would have lost Iowa, but no amount of political wriggling could have put him farther to the right on social issues than Mike Huckabee. Iowa was a lost cause for Mitt from day one, but instead of accepting that he chose to mold himself to the stances of that one tiny sliver of the electorate that is so radically different from the nation as a whole. If the Mitt Romney running for POTUS today was the genuine and successful Mr-Fixit rather than the seemingly "slick" Mr-Morals, Mitt would have a much better shot at winning the nomination and very conceivably the White House. But, alas, the Mitt Romney running today might still win the Republican nomination, but has almost no shot at the White House.

What a shame.

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