Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney staked a strongly worded claim as the Republican presidential candidate best suited to solve Michigan's deep-seated economic woes at a debate Thursday night, saying he would fight "for every single job" in the state.

"We're going to have to do the hard work of rebuilding our economy, strengthening it," said Romney, who blasted his main rival here -- Arizona Sen. John McCain -- for suggesting that some jobs lost in Michigan as Detroit's automakers have downsized are gone forever.

McCain refused to back down, living up to his reputation for straight talk and saying it's time to think about how to retrain Michigan's workers, and use Detroit's strength in research to solve energy problems of the future.

I guess Todd Spangler (the author of the column) is a McCainiac.  I'll try my hardest not to pass judgement on the candidate based on the editorial AND "news" endorsement of that particular candidate but admittedly, that's going to be hard.

And I won't let that detract (much) from the fact that for the first time in six years, if only for a few hours, fixing Michigan's economy occupied the minds and became the sole focus of men, one of whom very well could become the next leader of the free world.  And that, ladies and gents, is a heck of a lot better than "out of sight, out of mind" which continues to be the stand taken by Barack Obama, John Edwards and Jennifer Granholm's BFF Hillary Clinton.  

I'd be doing a disservice, though, if I failed to mention that Michigan, yesterday, saw her first Democrat candidate in the State since they all flipped us the two-fisted bird low those many months ago.  The Associated Press reports:

Dennis Kucinich is kicking off several days of stops in the state as the only Democratic presidential candidate who plans to campaign in Michigan ahead of next week's primary.

The Ohio congressman was scheduled to speak to the Troy Democratic Club on Thursday night. Other scheduled stops include a Friday evening rally at the University of Detroit Mercy.

All of the Democratic candidates had pledged not to campaign in Michigan because it broke party rules by moving up its primary to January 15.

No word on whether or not Denny saw any UFOs in the cold, night sky while he was visiting.  

I give the little guy a hard time but I actually appreciate him.  He cares enough about Michigan to defy the fat cat party bosses in the smoke filled cloak rooms on Capitol Hill and actually come to ask for our votes.  Funny, though, that he'll still wind up garnering only single figures next Tuesday.  I guess when all those folks in the regressisphere say they care about putting Michigan first they're lying.  Can't really say I blame them though... you lie long enough and about everything in your life I suppose eventually it just becomes habit.  Must be difficult not knowing up from down.