It's Michigan's turn — Mitt pledges to fight for auto industry

"It's the economy, stupid," Romney senior adviser Ron Kaufman said, echoing a phrase that helped Democrat Bill Clinton win the White House. Kaufman said the campaign's new focus plays up Romney's strengths as a successful businessman who made millions as a venture capitalist and later transformed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from scandal to success. Romney talking about the economy in Michigan "is not pandering here," Kaufman said.

"He is a man who fixes things. He can roll up his sleeves and make a difference," Kaufman said. It's something that the campaign hopes sets Romney apart from McCain, whose career has been in Washington, D.C.

The shift to economic issues comes after less-than-successful attempts to portray Romney as conservative enough on social issues such as abortion to win over the party's right wing, including evangelical Christian voters. Many evangelicals, however, do not see Romney as a fellow Christian because of his membership in the LDS Church.

In Iowa, the bulk of the evangelical votes went to Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who had questioned what Romney believed as a Mormon. That attention on Romney's faith was labeled by one campaign insider as a "significant factor" in his second-place finish in Iowa. The so-called "Mormon issue" was "more subtle" but still part of his New Hampshire defeat, the insider said.

Patrick Kolodziejczak, a Michigan public relations consultant and a Mormon himself, working at the auto show, said he has not seen Romney's faith become an issue in this election.

"I just think the people in Michigan have grown more accustomed to it with his father (who was also active in his LDS faith) having been governor," Kolodziejczak said. "He's really popular here. I don't think religion is going to have anything to do with any of these candidates."

Earlier in the day, Romney told the more than 500 business and community leaders gathered over lunchtime at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center that "Washington politicians look at Michigan, and they see a rust belt. But the real rust is in Washington."

Romney stressed the need to salvage Michigan's auto industry as key to maintaining America's position as a world leader. "It is essential that America remains strong, indeed the strongest nation on Earth," he said. "That will only happen if we have an economy that leads the world."

That status has been hurt by the decline in auto manufacturing, Romney said, noting early on in this speech and as he has throughout his campaign stops in Michigan, that Detroit was once the world capital of automaking. Now Michigan is suffering from the nation's highest unemployment rate, which should serve as a warning for what can happen to the rest of the U.S. economy.