DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney started defining what type of president he would be if elected in the 2008 election as he hit Michigan and Iowa Tuesday to announce his candidacy for the White House.

"Innovation" was main message at each stop as he told audiences that America faces some serious challenges and he believes he can think of new ways to solve them. More speeches are planned for South Carolina and in New Hampshire today.

Romney touched most major campaign topics. He supports sending more troops to Iraq to make the country stable and avoid future problems in the Middle East. He also wants better schools, lower taxes and stronger family values.

"This was the agenda I pursued as governor of Massachusetts and this is the agenda I will pursue if I am elected your president," Romney said.

Neither the speech in Michigan or Iowa — which were virtually identical — had specific policy proposals but laid out his conservative stance on the issues, including stressing smaller government that put more power in the hands of the citizens.

Romney said the country deserves a "transformation." He said that's something that can't be done by a "lifelong politician" or someone who never tried to fix a major problem like any of those the government faces right now, but by someone — like him — who has pursued "innovation and transformation" his whole life.

"Talk is easy, talk is cheap. It's the doing that is hard. And it is only in doing that hope and dreams come to life," Romney said.

Romney and his supporters use his role in running or "saving" the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, his experience as the Massachusetts governor and his success in business to illustrate that he can turn problems around and explain why he should be the next president.

Chris Kulesza of Michigan State University, who attended Romney's announcement event at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., has been impressed by the former governor's ability to reduce the Massachusetts $3 billion deficit in his four-year term.

"Especially when the U.S. government has such a huge deficit, I am really looking forward to seeing, if he becomes president, what he can do with that."

Romney's "effectiveness" will set him apart from other Republican challengers, Kulesza said.

Kathleen McIntyre of Livonia, Mich., thinks Romney is "phenomenal."