McCain, Romney Square Off In Mich.

GOP Primary Could Prove Crucial To Both Candidates' Nomination Bids

(CBS/AP)  In Kalamazoo, Mich., today, supporters of John McCain kept coming back to one simple explanation for why his campaign is surging, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports.

"I just think he's an honest man," said Roger Andrews. "He's a man of integrity and I trust him."

Many here said they love his straight-shooting approach.

"Since I tell you things you want to hear, I gotta tell you some things, maybe, some of you don't want to hear," the candidate said at one event.

In a last-day bid for votes in the Republican stronghold of west Michigan, McCain talked again about Michigan's economy and how he would retool training programs to help people who have lost their jobs.

"I'm convinced that Michigan's best days are ahead of it," McCain told more than 1,000 people gathered at Kalamazoo Christian High School.

The town hall-style event, held the day before Michigan's primary, featured questions from audience members about the Iraq war, Social Security, health care and other topics.

"The best, most productive workers in the world reside in this state," McCain said. "We're not going to leave these people behind. That's what America is supposed to be all about."

The new CBS News poll shows McCain's electability soaring from 7 to 41 percent in just one month.

"It's going to be close," the Arizona senator told reporters on the bus from Kalamazoo to Holland. "Every indicator we have is it's a close race. We're doing everything we can to get our vote out."

Speaking in Holland at Hope College, a small liberal arts school affiliated with The Reformed Church in America, McCain again focused on national security and the military, making it a point to introduce veterans.

He said a top domestic priority is improving veterans' health care, and he criticized problems at military hospitals. He also railed against what he called pork-barrel spending projects.

He insists the transcendent issue in this campaign is still the war on terrorism.

And nothing gets his supporters more fired up than his promise to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq.

"We will never surrender and they will! It will never happen!" he said to a standing ovation.

With Michigan suffering the highest unemployment in the nation, McCain does call for retraining workers who've lost jobs.

Contrast that with Mitt Romney, who's based his entire campaign here on his plan to save the Michigan economy.

"The burdens on American manufacturing are largely imposed by government, and new leadership in Washington can lift the burdens and lift the industry," Romney said.

Romney, a successful businessman, says the focus should be on reviving the car makers who will then be able to create more jobs.

Alternately promising and pleading, 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 McCain and Mike Huckabee.

A hometown loss to either on Tuesday would be hard to overcome as the nominating contest moves to South Carolina and Florida, both 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."

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.

"We're going all the way through February 5. No ifs, ands or buts about it," he said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

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 and work force training programs.

He also said he would convene an auto industry summit within his first 100 days, and warned 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.

[torchramrod]

That''s good, make a Mormon crack. You intolerant bigot.

[debrar3]

I vote for Romney -- not only is he great, but he is a Mormon!!!

[Krazcarl]

Why are folks bigots that don''t buy yout plural marrige lies???if your smart enogh to practice personal hygene you know it''s trash.

[gladetryst]

1. Mormons do not practice plural marriage.
2. Mormons are not intolerant, you are slandering Mormons in general, this is a logical fallacy.
3. I do not agree with Mitt. But, don''t hate Mitt just because he is Mormon, if you hate him, at least hate him for his policy. You are doing what you say he is doing.

[gladetryst]

Please at least respect other religions even if you do not like them, mormon.org is a great intro.

[gladetryst]

I''m a Ron Paul supporter myself.

[idlepugilist]

Mitt''s most recent quote on NPR: Daimler Chrysler located their offices outside of the US because of high taxes.
What bunch of ***. Daimler is located in their home country, which isn''t the United States. Mitt is still not telling us how the over stretched military will achieve the victory Bush though t he had 4 years ago, or how we''re going to start to overcome our debt to China by cutting taxes for the very, very wealthy again.

[micma-2009]

It doesn''t matter much who wins the Republican nomination. All any of them have to offer is a third Bush term. Four more wars!

[cfin5]

If Ron Paul fails to win the Presidency, get used to being called a "Canamerexican". Go to (www.spp.gov) if you think I lie. You Union members in Michigan will have no one to blame but yourselves.....By the way, how''s Governor Taxinmaiden working for you?

[merlgrey]

sam brownback is gonna surprise everyone on super tuesday.

[cfin5]

sam brownback is gonna surprise everyone on super tuesday.

Posted by merlgrey at 11:48 PM : Jan 14, 2008-------What''s up with him?

[Krazcarl]

ANYONE that would trust a follower of Joe Smith is a fool Mcaian is the only hope for a discraced rebublicain party Huc''s a nice guy but I don''t want a failed babtist as my leader.

[merlgrey]

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.

Linder joined Alex Jones for two segments on his KLBJ Sunday show this evening, during which he commented on the controversy created by media hit pieces that attempted to tarnish Paul as a racist by making him culpable for decades old newsletter articles written by other people.

"Knowing Ron Paul and having talked to him, I think he''s a very fair guy I just think that a lot of folks do not understand the Libertarian platform," he added.

Asked directly if Ron Paul was a racist, Linder responded "No I don''t," adding that he had heard Ron Paul speak out about police repression of black communities and mandatory minimum sentences on many occasions.

Dr. Paul has also publicly praised Martin Luther King as his hero on many occasions spanning back 20 years.

"I''ve read Ron Paul''s whole philosophy, I also understand what he''s saying from a political standpoint and why people are attacking him," said Linder.

"If you scare the folks that have the money, they''re going to attack you and they''re going to take it out of context," he added.

"What he''s saying is really really threatening the powers that be and that''s what they fear," concluded the NAACP President.

[merlgrey]

A well-publicized weekend photo-op for Mitt Romney turns out to have been missing a piece of information that might have undermined its credibility: the unemployed single mom at the center of the event was the mother of a Romney staffer.

Politico.com, reported that Romney was the picture of empathy as he sat at the Marshall, Mich. kitchen table of 51-year-old Elizabeth Sachs, a single mother of two.....

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7895.html

[brianbwb-2009]

"Romney, a successful businessman, says the focus should be on reviving the car makers who will then be able to create more jobs."

Bull hockey. Just more "trickle down" lying BS. Give the autofakers less taxes, so they can finance the expansion of their south easy Asian slave labor camp factories, and continue to foist gas guzzling, poorly designed, overpriced, toy looking death traps on us.

McCain? War, more war! Crush! Kill! Destroy! Embezzle!

Losers, the lot...

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by merlgrey

Austin? You mean Austin, Texas? No wonder the NAACP head of that local chapter says that, if he doesn''t, they will cancel his check, Send him on a hunting trip with Cheney, and if he survives that, they will drag him behind a pickup truck until his head comes off.

Texas. LOL!!! Getting desperate, are we?

[ontheleft]

''If Ron Paul fails to win the Presidency''

Ron Paul doesn''t have a snowball''s chance. He''s only at 5% support nationally. When will these die-hard Ron Paul supporters give up? If he decides to run as an independent he''ll take votes away from the Republicans and I know Ron Paul would not like to see a Democrat in office. Why? He''s a Republican!

I predict that we will have a third party candidate enter the race at some point. The conditions are ripe for it. That candidate will wind up throwing the election to either the Democrats or Republicans. Remember what happened in ''92 and ''00? Perot didn''t enter the race until real late and he still had a big impact.

[mediapreachr]

Let''s face it-the next president won''t be republican.

[perception5]

For the GOP John McCain represents the "Old Guard"

Washington DC is "broken" badly.

I''m voting for the GOP''s "New Guard"

I''m voting for Mitt Romney .........aka "Mr. Fixer" ......... to save our economy and our country.

..............GO MITT !!

[wv4huckabee]

Problems with McCain? Yeah a few...
McCain-Feingold-a most brazen frontal assault on political speech
McCain-Kennedy%u2014the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.
McCain-Lieberman%u2014the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry in American history.
McCain-Kennedy-Edwards%u2014the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement
And McCain%u2019s stated opposition to the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts was largely based on socialist, class-warfare rhetoric %u2014 tax cuts for the rich, not for the middle class. The public record is full of these statements. Today, he recalls only his insistence on accompanying spending cuts.
And then there%u2019s the McCain defense record.
His supporters point to essentially one policy strength, McCain%u2019s early support for a surge and counterinsurgency. It has now evolved into McCain taking credit for forcing the president to adopt General David Petreaus%u2019s strategy. Where%u2019s the evidence to support such a claim?
While McCain proudly and repeatedly points to his battles with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had to rebuild the U.S. military and fight a complex war, where was McCain in the lead-up to the war %u2014 when the military was being dangerously downsized by the Clinton administration and McCain%u2019s friend, former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen?

[abbe91]

Mccain booed in Michigan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-nVJGsTdKU

[merlgrey]

Mccain booed in Michigan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-nVJGsTdKU

Posted by abbe91 at 11:48 AM :

ha. gotta love how mccain tries to squirm out of that one by playing the poor soldiers mom card at the end... ''i''m not gonna deport an illegal mother of a soldier serving in iraq...''

how many of the soldier in iraq have illegal mothers in the US versus 12-15 million illegals (or more) here now. nice try McKeating five.

[bdrlnt4rl]

it seems to me from the articles i have read is that huck is more concerned with what romney believes and who romney knows than how he(huck) plans to lead America. it is like the preacher is obsessed with the mormon, kind of funny. we need a leader, not the guy next door playing in his garage band. HELLO PEOPLE.