Word: michigan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism," Mitt Romney said after winning the primary in Michigan, the state where he was born and where his father governed. This was, as is Romney's wont, distillate of hokum. The former Massachusetts governor remains the most pessimistic of candidates, always assuming the worst about the public?and never taking a difficult position or telling a hard truth. In Michigan, he suddenly opposed higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, included in the recent energy bill signed by the President. He also chided John McCain for telling the hard truth that...
Bill Clinton was a master at this, especially in 1992, when he would go to Michigan union halls selling free trade to the protectionist United Auto Workers. In fact, Clinton was the first presidential candidate to say, "Some of these jobs won't be coming back." But Clinton's counteroffer was a winner for two reasons. First, he included a breathless wonkfest of concrete programs to goose the economy and provide for displaced workers. More important, he convinced his audiences that he was obsessed with fixing the economy, that it was his No. 1 priority...
...invocations of Reagan are a sharp contrast to McCain's focus on national security, and Huckabee's churchy charm. All three front-runners are appealing to different strains of traditional Republican values; there's the Wal-Mart Republican (Huckabee), the establishment Republican (Romney), and the independent Republican (McCain). After Michigan, all three appear to have an equally good shot at the nomination. But for voters to have faith in the man who won Michigan, Romney can't afford to change his tune...
Still, Romney's success here is a tacit repudiation of the candidate that ran in Iowa and New Hampshire, and could spur the same doubts about him that have dogged his campaign since it began. After all, if he finally won in Michigan because he was being real, then he wasn't being real before, right? And if he's not carefully tailoring his messages any longer, why was his campaign so beautifully suited to the state of Michigan? "His detractors say he ran for the governor of Michigan," says Neil Newhouse, Romney's pollster from his Massachusetts races...
Romney's camp, of course, sees it very differently. "It was a perfect storm in Michigan," says Anuzis. "There's a potential national recession, and Mitt comes in and starts talking about turning things around. National issues coincided with state issues. "The campaign has seized upon this equivalence between Michigan's problems and the nation's to explain away his losses in New Hampshire and Iowa. "Michigan is a microcosm of America," says Madden, implying that the earlier, and more influential, states shop for boutique candidates. Apparently South Carolina falls into that category as well, since Romney will likely bypass...