LANSING, Mich. – Mitt Romney, in what may prove an unfortunate choice of words, has taken to referring to Michigan as “ground zero” for his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

He is referring to the fact that he was born here, went to prep school here and is the son of a former top auto executive and Michigan governor. As he told an audience in Warren, Mich., Friday morning, “My mom and dad are buried here.”

But many – including not a few in the Romney campaign – also believe this state could be the ground zero where his 2008 presidential hopes are reduced to rubble.

Polls show Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, in a close contest with Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

Whatever advantages Mr. Romney’s birth here bestows, they could be trumped by Mr. Huckabee’s support among evangelical Christians and Mr. McCain’s history of attracting independent and Democratic voters. Mr. McCain won the Michigan primary in 2000.

Mr. Romney’s supporters dismiss Mr. Huckabee as a “single-issue candidate,” the man from the Religious Right who has no business experience or foreign policy credentials. Mr. McCain has spent nearly three decades in Washington talking and not doing, Mr. Romney suggested Friday morning at Macomb County Community College.

“What have you done?” Mr. Romney said, not specifying quite who “you” was but making it clear he was talking about Senator McCain. “What kinds of things have you done to ease the burden on business?”



He went on, “Now everybody’s interested, of course, because they’re running for president. What they have they done while they were in the Senate and the House for 27 years?”

[Mr. McCain has been in Congress for 25 years, actually, but close enough for presidential politics.]

Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, declined to respond specifically to Mr. Romney’s remarks, but said that Mr. Romney pretty much had to win Michigan to stay in the race.

“Romney has a tall hurdle,” Mr. Davis said in an interview. “For a year he’s talked about an early state strategy and he’s about to run out of states.”

For the record, Mr. Romney placed second in Iowa and New Hampshire but he did win the Wyoming caucuses. (He also scaled back operations in South Carolina this week.)

On the record, Mr. Romney and his aides predict victory in Michigan and say they will compete in Florida and later contests whatever the outcome here.

Representative Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who is supporting Mr. Romney, picked up the ground zero metaphor and expanded on it.

“Michigan is so many ways is ground zero – not just for the campaign but for the challenges the United States faces,” Mr. Hoekstra said, noting the distress of the auto industry and the flight of manufacturing jobs overseas. He said that Mr. Romney is just the guy to turn around the domestic auto industry, because of his experience in business and as C.E.O. and rescuer of the 2002 Winter Olympics.