What's in a name?

The Primary season in politics is unique in that it only appeals to a small minority of political junkies (like me) and old folks with nothing better to do.

Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, won the Republican Primary in my state, Michigan, going away yesterday.

The polls that had the race as a statistical tie between Romney and McCain, who won Michigan in 2000, were dead wrong. Romney won by nine points over McCain and nearly doubled Huckabee's vote total.

Relatively little has changed in Michigan since 2000. The economy is still poor, taxes are still high and the Lions still suck.

Luckily for Mitt, his last name still has currency in this state with the 60-and-over crowd who can remember when his father was governor. Further, Michigan isn't Iowa where Mitt got the Evangelical cold shoulder.

Michiganders, in other words, wouldn't hold Mormonism against him.

Nor will they, apparently, really listen closely to his sunny side up rhetoric.

Romney panders more than either Huckabee or McCain with respect to Michigan's failing economy, that much is obvious. His first order of business as president, or so he says, would be to begin the process of restoring Michigan's economy--whatever that means.

He believes that somehow we can get these lost jobs in the automotive sector back by making Michigan more desirable for that kind of business.

Newsflash: Those jobs aren't coming back.

McCain's stance is that we need to support new high tech industries, automotive and otherwise, to get back on track.

McCain's tact isn't somber or defeatist; it's real.

Michigan will never be what it was. Economic monocultures are bound rise and fall, and no amount of pandering will get us back to that time and place.

Good luck down south, Mitty!

Predictions

By "Super Tuesday" Romney's candidacy will be in its death throes. There is no way Romney's dog and pony show will be able to do down south what it did in Michigan.

Romney will finish behind McCain and Huckabee in South Carolina and, if he is not careful, could actually lose out to Father Time (Fred Thompson) for the bronze.

The state that killed McCain in 2000 may be the one to usher him in to "Super Tuesday" as the Republican frontrunner.

From there, Rudy has to win Florida or he is toast.