Es la economía, Gobernador

Todos coinciden esta mañana en que la cómoda victoria de Mitt Romney en Michigan se ha debido al optimismo económico que logró imprimir en su mensaje. La credibilidad del ex Gobernador de Massachusetts aumenta espectacularmente cuando el debate electoral se instala en la esfera económica. Ese debe ser el aprendizaje de su experiencia en Michigan. Dirigir su discurso hacia las preocupaciones de bolsillo de la clase media, hacer que su dominio práctico de los detalles específicos de la gestión y la resolución de los conflictos económicos, eclipse la desconfianza del votante republicano medio sobre su religión o sus cambios de postura en temas socio-culturales como el aborto, en los que siempre llevará las de perder frente al fuerte populismo cultural de rivales como Huckabee.

El resultado de Michigan confirmó que Romney sería el candidato ideal en unas elecciones pre 9-11 centradas en los programas económicos de los candidatos. Pero la variedad de debates en juego -seguridad nacional, contra-terrorismo, inmigración, política exterior, aborto, ética, integridad- hace más difícil trasladar la estrategia de Michigan a otros puntos de la Unión. Byron York, corresponsal de National Review en la Casa Blanca, reflexiona sobre el significado de los resultados de Michigan y el futuro de Romney. Why Romney Won

(...) Tony Paskus is an engineer with Ford Motor Company, born and raised in Michigan, and he doesn’t hesitate for a moment when asked why he voted for Mitt Romney. “I’m turning selfish this election,” Paskus tells me as we wait for Romney to make a victory speech at the Embassy Suites Hotel here in suburban Southfield. “I’m very selfish this time. I want somebody who will take care of Michigan.”

“Everybody’s been ignoring us,” Paskus continues. “The Senate, Congress in general, even our president has been ignoring us. And we’re hurting. So this is our best chance of somebody at least paying attention to what’s going on here.”

That somebody is Romney. And if you multiply those sentiments by a few hundred thousand, you have what happened in Michigan Tuesday. Michigan, suffering from high unemployment and general economic decline — they call it a “one-state recession” here — wants help. Romney promised more of it than anyone else.

When rival John McCain said — probably correctly — that some of the state’s lost automotive jobs wouldn’t come back, Romney answered, “Baloney.” He also promised the auto industry $20 billion in federal investment, along with relief from mileage standards and burdensome employee health-care costs. Looked at from the voter’s perspective, one candidate, McCain, offered Michiganders little understanding — the Michigan equivalent of McCain’s opposition to ethanol subsidies in Iowa — while the other, Romney, promised to throw them a life preserver. The guy with the life preserver won.

(...) That’s a question for later. Right now, Romney has found his theme as the outsider who is going to fix the failures of Washington. “Tonight marks the beginning of a comeback, a comeback for America,” Romney tells the crowd in the tiny room where he had scheduled his victory celebration. (Was the campaign, disappointed before, being overly cautious in site selection, choosing a location that would look crowded even if few people showed up? “The pessimists must have chosen this room,” says one Romney supporter jammed into the space.)

Romney’s full-fledged outsiderdom will mean changes in his campaign style. For one thing, it will probably force him to become more critical of George W. Bush. In speeches, he sometimes mentions that Bush has kept the country safe from terrorist attack for six years, but he says it in an at-least-let’s-give-him-that kind of way, not as a show of overall support. From the victory podium, Romney sends a clear message that from now on, he’s willing to ignore pretty much everything else when it comes to the president. “I take my inspiration from Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, who took their inspiration from the American people,” he says. “Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush said we are a great and good people, and it’s exactly what we are.” Romney is all for President Bush, just not the one who’s in the White House. (...)