chuck, as just a quick indication of what we may experience over the course of the day. five minutes ago i smoke to a small business owner and his wife. this is a registered democrat. the child of an autoworker who moved to the state to work in the autoindustry. he said he came out today to vote for rick santorum, and he made it very clear he s not sure who he s going to vote for in the general election this fall, but he didn t think mitt romney, a man worth as much money as he did, needed to be in the white house, and really couldn t understand the issues that he s dealing with right now. not the story line the romney campaign wants to hear. another narrative that they pushed back against reporters is the narrative of this out of touch wealthy presidential candidate, mitt romney. in recent days with coverage about the nascar comments, the coverage at ford field where they specifically refer to the number of cadillacs that he had. the strategists and right now
there was a time when not one but two of michigan s native sons were running for president. the republican party standard in the fall. if honored enough to serve in the honor of the presidency, i honor you this. i will not work for the pundit. i will not work for the bund lers. i will not work for the powerful. i will work for the people. i will work for you. with me now, former presidential candidate turned romney supporter michigan congressman thaddeus mckocotter happy national pancake day. there you go. it s now my daughter s favorite holiday. how did romney get to this this point? how is he on the verge of frankly a coin flip between winning and losing the state of michigan? well, there s two things. there s the general and there s
romney is going to be the strongest as the heart and soul of the auto industry and and around the suburbs. but the other parts of michigan are the santorum message on life and on guns. this is a pro-gun, pro-life state. is that how the state is split? the suburbs of detroit versus the rest of the state when it comes to republican voters? . well, the reality is the economy of michigan is something that links everybody together. it s an automotive state. it s a manufacturing state. in many ways there are fewer differences economically between detroit and grand rapids as michigan and any other midwestern state. when it comes down to what s happening in michigan today as a republican, you can look at the primary, and they re all on record being opposed to the auto industry bridge loans, which i trust that s what president obama will call it, and doing that in the primaries. the concern many of us have is
upper peninsula, for example. you go to grand rapids, and you have a lo of conservative people in that area, many of whom come from a dutch background. they have very strong feelings about soecial issues. so michigan is a mixed bag. mike murphy was reminding me. the strongest state chapter is in the state of michigan. mm-hmm. in gun groups. nra. very strong. this is a place for his social issues. that s absolutely true. it s a state of many, many parts. i do think you have to try to project forward what s going to happen here in michigan in the fall as a result of the campaign. by the way, you and i have been talking about this. i think it s a comment on the absence of nimbleness on the part of romney, that he couldn t just seize the santorum comments on college education.
votes. santorum s advantage will be democrats crossing over in michigan s open primary, where some union members are encouraging democrats to make the mischief. it s happened before in in the state. santorum s campaign is running 11th hour robo calls asking for democratic votes. romney supporting the bailouts for his wall street billionaire buddies but opposed the auto bailouts. on tuesday, join democrats who are going to send a loud message to massachusetts mitt romney by voting for rick santorum for president. now romney is not happy about the calls. called it a dirty trick. i wasn t too concerned about what the democrats were putting out there because i figured it wouldn t have much impact. but senator santorum did something which i think is deceptive and a dirty trick, which is he put an ad out there sounding like a labor ad, telling labor folks and democrats to vote against me and vote for rick santorum. so confusing em people.