Mitt Outplayed Mac in Michigan

With Great Lakes State voting booths not quite closed—and polls tied—pundits are already writing post-mortems on the two-Republican race, and giving Mitt Romney the campaigning edge. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn and Henry Payne in the National Review agree that Mitt hit his stride, convincing Michiganders he’s the man to inject optimistic business sense into the flailing auto industry.

Payne says Romney took the upper hand by negating John McCain’s pessimism—insisting “I’m not going to be one of those who write off jobs.” Cohn adds the Michigan native returned to his original electoral identity as a pragmatic businessman—and leads Mac by two to one among those rating the economy as their most important issue. Both writers also note McCain’s environmental straight talk was a major voter turn-off.