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Mitt Romney won Michigan—and stepped back from the brink of a failed presidential bid—by talking about his ideas for saving the economy and bringing back jobs in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country. The former Massachusetts governor won about 39 percent of the vote to Sen. John McCain's 30 percent. Mike Huckabee, who prevailed in Iowa, came in third with 16 percent, leaving the GOP race again without a clear favorite.

Meanwhile, political observers here in Michigan, where the declining fortunes of the auto industry has led to widespread concern, say that McCain took his straight talk formula too far.

In a state where unemployment was at 7.4 percent in November, McCain said that jobs weren't coming back. He also has been the only GOP candidate to say the country must aggressively confront global warming by embracing higher fuel-efficiency standards—heresy in Motor City, USA.

Romney seized on McCain's missteps, portraying the senator's candor as an example of defeatism from an out-of-touch Beltway politician and his own win as "a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism."

Romney also repeatedly described a bill McCain supported that will require vehicle manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency by 40 percent over the next 12 years as an "anvil" around the neck of a floundering industry. "I'm going to fight for every single job," Romney pledged on the trail here. In ads he flooded onto the state's airwaves, Romney also used the state's ailing economy to underscore his outsider appeal, saying, "I'll work every day to change Washington and bring us back, because Michigan is personal to me."  Indeed, in his victory speech from a ballroom at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Southfield, Mich., tonight, Romney again hit on the issue, saying, "I will never accept defeat from any industry here in America," Romney told his jubilant supporters."Tonight marks the beginning of a comeback, a comeback for America." Romney declared in his victory speech. "Only a week ago, a win looked like it was impossible, but then you got out and told America what they needed to hear. You said we would fight for every job."

Steve Mitchell, a leading Michigan pollster, said Romney sealed his victory by picking up support from voters who only decided on their candidate at the last minute—and for many of them the economy was the focus. "Six in 10 voters said jobs and the economy is the most important issue in the vote they cast today," Mitchell said, citing a poll he released yesterday. "Among those voters Mitt Romney had a 4 percent lead."