Romney wins! Romney wins! 39-30 over McCain!

The networks are calling today's Michigan primary for former the Massachusetts governor, awarding him his first gold medal in a major contest (sorry, Wyoming) after a string of disappointing silvers in Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney defeats a resurgent John McCain, who in the wake of his shocking comeback in New Hampshire looked last week like he would march to victory in the Great Lakes State and become the first Republican candidate to fully claim the frontrunner mantle. Despite the McCain camp's early attempts to dismiss a potential Romney win as pure native-son favoritism--Romney's father George ran American Motors in Detroit and served as a popular Republican governor in the 1960s--tonight's results represent an unequivocal setback for the Arizona senator, a tenuous revival for Romney and, for the Republican field as a whole, a totally fractured, leaderless race heading into Saturday's South Carolina primary.

How did Romney win? By ditching the inauthentic "consensus conservative" guise, reminding local voters of his Michigan roots, promising to "rebuild" the auto industry (McCain admitted that jobs weren't coming back) and dropping more than $2 million on television advertising. On primary day, Democrats and Independents--a large chunk of McCain's base--stayed home, comprising only 25 percent of the GOP primary electorate as compared to the 35 percent they made up when McCain won in 2000. And more than half of voters told pollsters that the economy--which Romney, former CEO of Bain Capital and master "turnaround" artist, worked hard to dominate over the past week--was their top issue, up from 33 percent in McCain-friendly New Hampshire.

Where does Romney go from here? South Carolina, like the rest of the Republicans. It's undoubtedly harsher terrain. As commenter BinxBollings points out, Romney drew a huge chunk of his support from voters (four in 10) who said his ties to Michigan were very or somewhat important to their vote, while losing by 18 percent to McCain and almost losing to Huckabee among the 56 percent who thought his Michigan connection unimportant. In South Carolina, expect him to continue pushing his new message: "It’s a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism. The people of Michigan said they believe in someone who is going to fight for them." Will momentum--and money, considering he's been off the air in the Palmetto State for a week--be enough to push the Massachusetts Mormon past not only Mike Huckabee, whom he trails by six in the latest polling averages, but McCain, whom he trails by 10?

We'll see in four short days.

UPDATE: Commenter "Vital Centrist" hits the nail on the head re: the weirdness of Romney's "turnaround":

Perhaps Romney intentionally committed tactical errors early on---running as an evangelical conservative---as part of a genius strategy to show his ability to bail out sinking ships as a "turrnaround artist." Or maybe he hired Bain to consult on his campaign, and a bunch of nerdy Harvard 20-somethings stated the obvious: forget the rightward shift and focus on what you're good at, fundamentals. But then, wouldn't he be a failed company or a corrupt Olympics, and then that would negate his whole new theme? I'm so confused.

Indeed. 

UPDATE II: The McCain camp blasts out Ron Fournier's latest AP column: "MITT WON, AUTHENTICITY LOST." Make sense--but it's not quite fair, I suppose. Mitt was more "authentic" in Michigan than he's been since the start of the campaign. It's just that his authentic self is a salesman--and he'll go as far as he needs to go to seal the deal. Eager to see how that plays in South Carolina...