'That's Not My Job': Romney Not Evaluating Defeats
Win or lose, Romney told "Nightline" he'll battle ahead past Michigan.
DETROIT, Jan. 14, 2008— -- When Michigan voters head to the polls tomorrow to cast their ballots in the Republican primary, Mitt Romney hopes to rebound in a state where he has "deep roots."
Romney, who finished second in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, not only grew up in Michigan but met his wife there, and his father served as Michigan governor for three terms.
Polling over the weekend has Romney with a slight edge over Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. But as with Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is too close to call.
Romney sat down with "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden to talk about the tight race in Michigan. While he acknowledged the primary is very personal for him, he said it wasn't his last stand.
"I'd like to win Michigan," he said. "I plan on winning Michigan, but I sure don't have to win Michigan."
"There's no question in my mind that in a normal primary setting, I'm going to win Michigan," he added. "I have to have a little doubt because there's no Democratic primary going on. If it's a straight-up primary, I win. Nevada. I'm going to win Nevada. I've got a good shot of winning South Carolina. I look to win Florida, and there are a bunch of states after those that I plan to win. Missouri is among them."
Watch Cynthia McFadden's interview with Mitt Romney tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET
Despite a widespread belief that winning Michigan is crucial if Romney is to remain a credible candidate, the governor says he is not giving up without a fight. "I'm going to keep battling," he said. Citing his toughness, he referenced an old family saying: "If a Romney drowns, look for his body upstream."
"I'm going on," he continued, adding that even if he doesn't win Michigan, he "can win other states."
"At this stage, we only have three states that have run," he said. "I've won one and come in second in the other two. No one else has a record that good. … I'm not going to have three states decide who should be the nominee of our party."
The two second-place finishes were in Iowa and New Hampshire. The win was in Wyoming, which Romney said he doesn't discount just because the race was not as hotly contested. When asked to "put on his management consultant hat" and explain what went wrong in Iowa and New Hampshire -- where he vastly outspent his rivals -- Romney was unwilling to elaborate.
"I'm not going to explain it to you," he said. "I'm not going to be the pundit. That's not my job. … My job is to take my message around the country, talk about the things I believe in, and win the nomination. That's the track I'm on."
When asked about any mistakes he has made so far in the campaign, Romney said, "I won't go through political strategy and say, 'Did I do this right?' … That's not what I'm in the race for. I am in this race to talk about new leadership for this country at a critical time. … I'm a person who has spent his life taking on tough problems and solving them. I'm offering everyone I can the vision I have for the future for this great country. I'm going to keep doing it."
Romney has focused his message in Michigan on the struggles of the Detroit auto industry. He said Michigan is going through "a one state recession" and that "a lot has been lost."
"When I was growing up, Michigan was the pride of America," he said.
Indeed, 300,000 jobs have been lost in Michigan since the year 2000, but Romney disagrees with the claim of rival John McCain that some of those jobs are gone for good.
"I'm not a pessimist," Romney said. "You know, we could really focus on the negative -- Gosh, those jobs are gone. But you know what? There are new jobs."
So does he agree with McCain that some jobs that were lost will not return in the same form?
"I don't know why you want me to agree with John McCain so much," Romney replied. "I'm not going to agree with John McCain because I'm not going to say that jobs that are lost are lost forever. I'm just not going to say that. I'm going to fight for every good job in this country. All jobs are transformed."
Romney said he would work to end the state's recession by "rekindling" the strength of the auto industry, in part by investing in science and technology, an investment that he said would not be in the form of a government bailout.
"No one's going to write a check to auto companies," he said. "That's not in the cards. But you can say we're going to work together to share certain areas, such as research and development costs or perhaps other areas, such as bringing down the cost of health care."
When asked if he planned to subsidize health care costs for auto workers, he replied, "of course not."
"We're not going to go around and subsidize to different industries the cost of health care. What we can do is reduce the cost of health care and stop the out of control run-up of health care costs. … If we have the kind of dynamic changes to the health insurance industry that are needed, you're going to see the cost of health care finally slow down."
Romney has stressed the need for the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, but he doesn't believe that the auto industry bears the brunt of that responsibility, saying, "It's actually one of the ways, but not nearly the majority of the ways we use oil."
Romney did not see a conflict between advocating reducing dependency on foreign oil while opposing corporate average fuel economy standards mandating car manufacturers go to 40 miles a gallon for the new cars.
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