GOP Class War Hits First Industrial-State Primary of 2012

At Los Angeles Times, "Santorum and Romney fight their own class war in Michigan":

Rick Santorum, flaunting the fieriest populism in years by a GOP presidential contender, is waging a determined challenge against Mitt Romney, heir to a storied Michigan political dynasty. Romney had once been expected to cruise to victory in the state his father governed and that he won four years ago.

But Santorum was aiming for an upset that, as he says, would shock the Republican world. In the first industrial-state primary of 2012, he has cast himself as a fighter for working men and women against the "elites in society who think that they can manage your life better than you can."

The biggest threat facing the country, the former senator from Pennsylvania says, is a big government in Washington that is bent on expanding its reach ever more deeply into the lives of ordinary Americans. And he links Romney to those forces and to the plutocrats of Wall Street, while drawing implicit contrasts between himself and one of the richest men ever to seek the presidency.

Romney defended his wealth — and by implication the wealthy — during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."

"If people think that there is something wrong with being successful in America, then they better vote for the other guy," he said. "Because I've been extraordinarily successful and I want to use that success and that know-how to help the American people."

More at that top link.

And also at LAT, "Romney, Santorum locked in dead heat."

Santorum's up 37 to 35 in that poll cited at the article above.

We'll see how it goes. I'll be checking around for more news. But see CNN, "Santorum adviser on Michigan: 'We have already won'." (At Memeorandum.)