LANSING, Mich. (AP) – When he stands in The Henry Ford museum today flanked by the AMC Rambler that once belonged to his father and a Ford Escape Hybrid, Mitt Romney is expected to talk about the ingenuity that has driven U.S. prosperity in the past and how it can still create a bright future for Americans workers.
The former Massachusetts governor gave a hint of what he’ll be talking about at his official presidential campaign kickoff in Dearborn when he spoke to reporters Saturday at the Republican state convention in Grand Rapids.
“Michigan is … a place of innovation and technology. You think about the Ford museum and Greenfield Village, it’s the place where Thomas Edison’s laboratory is, and where other great inventions are housed,” he said. “Technology, innovation, has always been the heart of what propelled Michigan’s success.”
Romney says the downsizing and financial problems at the domestic automakers and some of their suppliers are a sign that more must be done to keep American economic dominance from slipping.
“They … indicate that, unless we get manufacturing and technology and innovation on a very sound footing, that can be challenging for the country as a whole,” he said Saturday.
Romney’s choice of a venue was strongly criticized Monday by the National Jewish Democratic Council, which noted Ford’s history of anti-Semitism. But Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney, said the museum embodies the spirit of innovation Romney wants to showcase and noted that other political leaders have praised Ford’s accomplishments.
Romney’s father, George, was president of American Motors Corp. before he successfully ran for governor in 1962, serving in that position until he left in 1969 to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1968, he launched an unsuccessful presidential bid.
“I don’t expect people to vote for me (in Michigan) because of my dad. But I expect that they’ll know my dad’s reputation for character and integrity and hope that some of that landed on my shoulders as well,” Mitt Romney told reporters.
William Rustem of Public Sector Consultants, a Lansing think tank, said Romney is making a wise move kicking off his campaign in the state where he grew up.
“It moves him away from what some would call the elite East Coast and back to the Midwest,” Rustem said Monday.
Although most Michigan residents won’t remember his father, who died in 1995, the Romney name “is still a highly respected name in Michigan,” Rustem added.
“Hearkening back to his roots is going to help him.”
Romney, 59, left Michigan in the mid-1960s to attend college at Stanford University and then Brigham Young University. Later, he simultaneously earned a master’s degree in business administration and a law degree at Harvard University and settled with his wife – Ann, another Michigan native – in the Boston area three decades ago.
But even though he hasn’t lived in Michigan for quite a while, the state looms large in his presidential plans. He has stopped by Michigan fairly regularly in recent years, making several visits last year to promote GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.
Romney also spoke in September 2005 to a large Republican gathering on Mackinac Island. He told the gathering that he had many fond memories of the island, where his father brought the family during visits to the governor’s summer residence.
He told a story about going out in the family’s 15-foot boat for a romantic nighttime ride with Ann under the landmark Mackinac Bridge. He was in mid-kiss, the boat’s lights turned off, when he realized a huge freighter was passing 30 feet away. It ended the romantic moment in a hurry as he rushed to move his boat.
Whether those roots will help when Michigan Republicans vote for a favorite in February 2008 remains to be seen. A recent poll by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA showed that 19 percent of likely Michigan voters statewide don’t recognize his name, and that fewer have a favorable opinion of him than of his leading GOP rivals, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Despite that, Romney sounded confident that if he got the GOP nomination, Michigan would back a Republican for the first time since 1988, potentially making him the first-ever Michigan-born president (the late Gerald Ford was born in Nebraska).
“I did grow up here. I know the industries here. I’ve been to all 83 counties here. I’ve worked for the Republican Party here,” he told GOP activists Saturday.
Pointing to a campaign banner hanging overhead, he added, “The sign has it wrong. It’s not “Michigan for Mitt.’ I’m for Michigan.”
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