GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. -- — Reeling from defeats in New Hampshire and Iowa, Mitt Romney suspended TV advertising in South Carolina and Florida on Wednesday, a money-saving move that laid bare the dire condition of his run for the White House.
After a year of sparing virtually no expense in his quest for the Republican nomination, Romney's pullback amounted to an extraordinary retreat in two states that will hold crucial primaries this month -- even though he could resume advertising on short notice.
Romney's losses to Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses and John McCain in the New Hampshire primary have wrecked his campaign strategy. He was counting on victories in those contests to vault him to the nomination.
A day after the setback in New Hampshire, Romney turned Wednesday to another state to rescue his candidacy: Michigan. He grew up there, and his father, George Romney, was its governor from 1963 to 1969.
"I care about Michigan," Romney told a crowd here at Grand Valley State University. "For me, it's personal."
Michigan's primary will take place Tuesday, followed four days later by South Carolina's. Florida's primary is Jan. 29.
But Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, faces a fiercely contested race in Michigan, a state that McCain won in his 2000 presidential bid.
Basking in his New Hampshire victory, McCain arrived in Grand Rapids hours before Romney on Wednesday. Like Romney, he salted his remarks with plans to remedy Michigan's ailing economy. The state's 7.4% unemployment rate is the highest in the nation.
"There are tough times here in the heartland of America," the Arizona senator told several hundred supporters in a Grand Rapids airport hangar.
Huckabee, too, poses a challenge to Romney in Michigan. A former Southern Baptist minister, he has a natural kinship with many evangelicals in the state's rural areas. On Wednesday, he started airing an ad in Michigan that draws a contrast between his folksy style and Romney's more staid corporate image.
"I'm Mike Huckabee, and I approved this message, because I believe most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with -- not the guy who laid them off," the former Arkansas governor says in the ad.
With the Iowa and New Hampshire disappointments threatening to undercut his fundraising, Romney tried to show that he remained competitive. Romney met Wednesday morning in Boston with several hundred people who were soliciting donations by telephone at rows of tables in a vast convention center showroom.
