January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

DETROIT (Michigan), Jan 16: Republican Mitt Romney has revived his flickering White House hopes, powering to a Michigan primary victory as worries about the US economy increasingly define the 2008 election battle.

“Tonight marks the beginning of a comeback, a comeback for America,” the former Massachusetts governor told cheering supporters after his win late on Tuesday which left the Republican presidential nomination race wide open.

“Only a week ago a win looked like it was impossible, but then you got out and told America what they needed to hear,” the multi-millionaire Mormon businessman told some 300 delirious supporters, his wife Ann just next to him.

“Let’s take this campaign to South Carolina and Nevada and Florida and all over the country, and let’s take it all the way to the White House!” Meanwhile, in the unpredictable Democratic battle, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came together for a face-to-face debate in gambling paradise Las Vegas, after carefully smoothed over a bitter race dispute.

Romney, who was born in Michigan, beat his nearest rival, Senator John McCain, by 39 per cent to 30 per cent, with 99 per cent of precincts counted.

But with three different winners in the three main nominating contests held so far in the roller-coaster White House race ahead of the November elections, everything was still left to play for.

“I think we’ve shown them we don’t mind a fight. We don’t mind a fight, and we’re in it,” McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, told supporters.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who was running third with 16 per cent, noted that he had won Iowa, McCain had won New Hampshire, and now Romney carried Michigan, but he vowed to triumph in the next key contest of South Carolina on Saturday.

After that all eyes will turn on Feb 5 when more than 20 states will vote for their choice for White House candidate.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister with a potent populist economic message, accused his two rivals of coming late to his understanding that “there’s a world of hurt out there in America.” After two second place finishes that raised questions about the sustainability of his campaign, Romney used his campaign here to hark back to the rust-belt’s distant car-making glory days when his father George governed Michigan in the 1960s.

“I’m going to fight to help Michigan, and I will not rest until it’s come back,” Romney said in a rare show of emotion at an election-day rally in Grand Rapids.

His victory broke McCain’s momentum — eight years after the senator carried the Republican primary over future victor George Bush.—AFP