THE NOTE: Of Mitt and Mayhem

Jan. 16, 2008 -- So much for winnowing the field.

Among the many lessons of Tuesday's Michigan primary:

1. Stick around long enough in the Republican race and you too can be a winner. (Slate's John Dickerson: "The GOP primary is starting to look like a Pee Wee soccer tournament: Everyone gets a trophy!" Whose turn is it to bring the orange slices to South Carolina on Saturday?)

2. Democrats, independents, and evangelical Republicans can all find better ways to spend their Tuesdays. (And in the process, they're helping hit restart on a GOP race that's fast turning into a fight for delegates.)

3. Smiling may take fewer muscles than frowning, but it can make you stronger. (On the economy, at least, straight talk loses to happy talk.)

4. Nearly half of those who trudged through snow to vote in the Democratic primary did so to NOT vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. (He's got a name fit for a thoroughbred, and surely, with 40 percent of the vote, Uncommitted's lawyers can sue to get included him included in remaining debates.)

5. Speaking of uncommitted, anyone who has figured out what Republican voters are truly looking for has the inside track -- but is probably spinning. (And staying warm in Florida while everyone else dodges snowflakes has never looked smarter.)

Former governor Mitt Romney's victory in Michigan forecloses any real possibility of a swift end to the GOP fight, ensuring a rumble that will continue at least through Feb. 5. If anything, the first three major contests (in addition to crowning three different winners) have contributed to enough chaos to add one to the ranks of major contenders: We welcome back former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, R-N.Y., who's just a win in Florida away from looking every bit as strong as any of his rivals.

This much is clear: Romney, R-Mass., has found a product he's comfortable selling -- optimism. There have been many iterations of his candidacy, but this was probably the best fit from the start: the turnaround artist, the businessman, the overall optimistic leader who (even if he can't quite fill himself with empathy on command) conveys a sense of competence.

"Just as important as Mr. Romney's personal ties was that he found himself, after setbacks in Iowa and New Hampshire, in an economically downtrodden state that has shed millions of jobs," Michael Luo writes in The New York Times. "The economic woes here played neatly into his strengths as a candidate, and his newly retooled message centered around his private sector experience and a promise to bring change to Washington."

Romney can make as good a claim as anyone to front-running status. Asked if Michigan marked a "comeback" for his campaign, he told ABC's Robin Roberts on Wednesday, "sure was."

"The big one was here in Michigan. I now have more delegates than anybody else, a lot more votes for president than anybody else," Romney said on "Good Morning America" (displaying an appropriately short memory of the big dollars he spent in Iowa and New Hampshire).

Perhaps the man meets the moment meets the issue meets the man. Michigan accentuated the importance of economic issues, though it's not the only struggling state. Romney's victory speech blasted "Washington-style pessimism" -- an only slightly oblique tweak aimed at Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the victim of his own straight talk about how some jobs just aren't coming back to Michigan.

"Romney advisers said a message the governor had been hammering for months finally broke through -- in part because people in Michigan were anxious to hear his can-do message on jobs and the economy, in part because McCain sent a rhetorical softball over the fat part of Romney's plate," Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post.

The win "breathed new life into his faltering campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, [with Romney] winning Michigan with strong support from conservative Republicans, those who favor deporting illegal immigrants and voters who consider the economy the most important issue facing the country," reads the Detroit Free Press wrap-up.

As the campaign heads south and west, Romney's got a new set of Michigan-specific proposals to explain. He does it as a serious contender now -- not the GOP's permanent (though quite well-heeled) bridesmaid -- but he still faces the old questions about his candidacy.

Says McCain adviser Mark Salter: "This will be one more item to add to the list for Romney's strategic plan to tell voters whatever the polls tell him to say."

"Not unlike the storyline Hillary Clinton latched onto after her comeback win in New Hampshire, Romney did seem to find his true voice in his home state," Time's Ana Marie Cox writes.

"Still, Romney's success here is a tacit repudiation of the candidate that ran in Iowa and New Hampshire, and could spur the same doubts about him that have dogged his campaign since it began. . . . Indeed, the very things that helped Romney handily defeat McCain by almost ten percentage points -- his more optimistic view of the economic future and claims that the auto industry's jobs could be saved -- could look to some voters like the worst kind of political pandering; in other words, the same old Mitt."

The AP's Ron Fournier takes a harder edge: "The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents' record and continued to show why he's the most malleable -- and least credible -- major presidential candidate. And it worked," he writes.

"To go all the way, Romney must overcome the original sin of his campaign -- his choice to do whatever it takes to be president. The smart money says he can't."

But as the focus moves to South Carolina -- where Romney has resuming his advertising, and his rivals arrived even before the race in Michigan was called -- the other contenders have just as many questions to answer.

McCain leaves a state he lost in 2000 in sore disappointment, unable to draw success from his old brand, even in a contest where Democrats and independents could have flocked to him without ignoring a race with any import.

"In addition to restoring the former Massachusetts governor's fortunes, the outcome underscored Arizona Sen. John McCain's challenges of translating support centered on independents and moderates in a party dominated by conservatives and mainline Republicans," ABC polling director Gary Langer writes.

(Here's guessing he won't hit any funeral homes in South Carolina.)