Different places, different faces

WHEN IT comes to Mitt Romney, distance seems to make the heart grow fonder.

Although New Hampshire decided he wasn't the real deal, Michigan, the state Romney left decades ago, gave him a much-needed victory this week.

That boost may have confirmed his instincts about how to conduct his campaign - and just in the nick of time.

So far in his quest for the White House, Romney has tried on any number of dubious identities.

He's run as a belated devotee of Ronald Reagan.

He's styled himself the voice of "the Republican wing of the Republican Party."

He's morphed into a virtual immigration-enforcement agent.

He's taken on the role of TV ad tattletale.

None of it proved particularly effective, in part because most of it seemed so transparently expedient.

And so, after Mike Huckabee won Iowa, New Hampshire jilted Romney and returned to its old sweetheart, John McCain.

Something new was needed - and in a hurry. Now, that might have proved a problem for some candidates.

But not for oh-so-mobile Mitt. There is a Romney for each season - and, seemingly, for each new contest. Thus it was that by returning to old themes, the local hopeful cleverly reinvented himself as . . . himself. Or as close to the real Romney as we've seen on the national campaign trail.

Romney ran in Michigan much the way he ran for governor here in 2002, downplaying the social issues and stressing his credentials as a savvy businessman ready to put his know-how to work reviving the state's laggardly economy.

Sure, that meant some pandering and the raising of unrealistic hopes, as well as distancing himself from some stances taken in Massachusetts. But if anyone thought that would be a problem, well, they simply don't know the Mighty Mighty Mittster.

There's something else afoot here, however. After his disappointing second-place Iowa finish, Romney is said to have decided that his consultant-driven approach wasn't really him, several sources say. (How he could tell is a fascinating epistemological matter, but, alas, beyond the scope of this column.)

"In Michigan, he was talking about issues that he knows a lot about and cares intensely about," says one knowledgeable source. "That is reflective of a conscious decision by him to take direct control of the message of his campaign and lessen the role of the consultants."

"He just thought, it's time to let Mitt be Mitt," confirms a campaign source.

Now, his pledge to aid the auto industry is more a date-one-state strategy than a national approach. Still, his Michigan win certainly validated the general idea of stressing economic themes.

That's a smart move for Romney for several reasons.

First, there's plausible political space there. John McCain has the upper hand in vying for the national security conservatives. Mike Huckabee has done well with the evangelicals (though Romney did just as well among that group in Michigan). Ron Paul owns the hard-core libertarians.

But no one has a better claim than Romney to the role of economic answer man.

Second, the economy is clearly nosing downward, which elevates those concerns, even as it may diminish the social issues, where Romney's flip-flops have highlighted his expediency.

But if Romney's Michigan win reinvigorated a flagging candidacy, in a race where a sense of sustained momentum has been slow to materialize, it leaves the GOP contest as muddled as ever.

Romney has won some breathing space, and should he prevail tomorrow in Nevada's caucuses, he will plausibly claim further forward motion.

Still, with its bellwether status, South Carolina is Saturday's big Republican event.

If Fred Thompson can't post a persuasive finish in that conservative state, it will likely be a crippling blow. Meanwhile, Huckabee, Iowa's victor, and McCain, the New Hampshire winner, both need to renew their momentum.

With McCain now back atop national polls of the GOP race, of the two, it's Huckabee who faces the biggest downside; without a strong South Carolina showing, he risks being seen as a one-state wonder.

And then there's Rudy Giuliani, once the Republican front-runner, now reduced to hoping that Florida, on Jan. 29, will deliver the win he needs to charge into the Feb. 5 primaries.

With Florida now a tight four-man race, I wouldn't bet on it.

But then again, the way this year is going, I wouldn't bet against it, either.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.