The stage for the battle between Mitt Romney and John McCain has been set:
Starting today, it’s Michigan’s turn.
And the state’s presidential primary, at least on the Republican side, apparently has come down to a two-man battle between Arizona Sen. John McCain, fresh off Tuesday’s victory in the New Hampshire primary, and Michigan native son Mitt Romney, trying to avoid a third defeat after losing in Iowa and New Hampshire.
(…)
McCain and Romney plan to spend much of the next six days shuttling between western and southeastern Michigan for rallies, town halls and speeches. They’ve had paid staff and hundreds of volunteers in the state for months.
Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucus but finished third in New Hampshire, added what as of late Tuesday was his only Michigan stop, a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Friday. Romney and McCain spoke to the group in 2007.
As of Tuesday night, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had no campaign stops planned for Michigan, choosing to focus on Florida and South Carolina, but he began running TV ads in parts of the state.
Michigan is crucial for McCain because his campaign is low on cash and many large states, where campaigning is especially expensive, loom.
“I think McCain will have a good showing, but if he doesn’t win, this could almost be it for him,” said John Truscott, a Republican consultant and spokesman for former Michigan Gov. John Engler.
The media is calling Michigan a do-or-die state for Romney, and in some sense it is because he needs to win a truly contested primary soon or all his money will just make him 2008’s version of John Connolly.
But McCain is in a similar position; his win in New Hampshire was impressive but, as I noted earlier today, the problem that McCain has is it’s unclear where he goes from here. He’s not going to win in South Carolina, and will have to deal with Giuliani, Romney, and Huckabee in Florida. And, as the article notes, he’s short on cash. All of this makes the stakes in Michigan big for both men.
Poll numbers to come soon, I am sure.
H/T: James JoynerÂ
January 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Here’s another factor, Huckabee’s going to be competitive. Michigan has lots of Evangelicals and a strong pro-life sentiment.