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TERRE HAUTE, IN — Hillary Clinton is turning up the heat on Barack Obama in the battle to hold a re-vote in the state of Michigan — calling him out for being scared of another election.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand why Senator Obama seems to be afraid of letting there be a revote in Michigan,” she said. “It’s going to hurt our party and our chances in November.”

Senator Clinton ridiculed a memo from the Obama campaign’s attorney Bob Bauer outlining the reasons for his opposition to the revote, saying “He comes up with all these legalistic answers.”

She also laid the blame for Michigan’ failure to come to a conensus on the issue squarely at Obama’s feet.”The people of Michigan and their legislature made it very clear that they would proceed with a revote. Unfortunately, Senator Obama’s campaign said no,” she said.

“So you’ll have to ask him what he’s afraid of.”

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Senator Clinton took her case for a re-vote directly to the people of Michigan at a union hall in Detroit today, telling voters “I am here for one simple reason: to make sure Michigan’s votes are counted, and your voices are heard in this election.”

The campaign has accused Senator Obama of standing in the way of draft legislation for a revote with a series of legal objections; the Obama campaign says it’s the Clinton camp that’s playing politics with the issue.

Senator Clinton insisted instead that, for her, the issue is one of basic American rights. “I will always defend your right to vote, no matter who you choose to vote for in the end,” she said.

And while the Obama campaign points out that she said in January that the Michigan results didn’t count for anything, Clinton claims she’s always cared about the voters in the Wolverine State.

“I’ve been saying for some time that the people of Michigan and Florida must have a voice in selecting our nominee for president,” she said. “When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believe your voices and your votes should count.”

As spokesman Phil Singer accused the Obama campaign on a conference call of pursuing an obstructionist agenda designed to disenfranchise voters, Senator Clinton appealed directly to her Democratic opponent in a subtler manner – while still managing to throw in a standard barbs attacking him as the candidate of rhetoric.

“Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” she said. “Today I’m urging him to match those words with actions, to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election.”

“This is a crucial test: does he mean what he says or not?”

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Senator Clinton thanked the people of Michigan for her victory in the Michigan primary yesterday — a slightly hollow one, since neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards were actually on the ballot.

On a conference call on economic issues with MI Gov Jennifer Granholm, Clinton said “I said repeatedly I will not turn my back on Michigan.” Calling herself a “strong partner” with the governor and the people of the state, she said “as president, I will do everything I can to help reverse the economic challenges Michigan has been coping with pretty much alone,” adding “I am personally humbled and grateful for the support I’ve received today.”

Clinton says she’s not concerned about the strong black vote against her in yesterday’s primary, saying “I am very committed to running a broad-based campaign reaching out to every community.” She added, “the support I showed in Michigan is very gratifying to me, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done.”

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In an email to reporters sent well before polls in Michigan closed, Obama Press Secretary Bill Burton downplayed what looked like an early victory for Senator Clinton, saying the results “have no bearing on the Democratic nomination contest.”

The reason: Michigan violated Democratic National Committee rules by moving up its primary and hence has had its delegates stripped as punishment. Burton stressed that Democratic candidates pledged not campaign in the state, open any offices, hire any staff, or communicate with Michigan voters. The Clinton campaign, Burton pointed out, did not withdraw her name “even though she publicly committed to not participate in the Primary.”

Burton also preemptively downplayed Florida’s upcoming primary, scheduled on January 29th against the DNC’s will. Senator Clinton currently leads in the polls there. Team Obama scolded the Clinton campaign for breaking her pledge and scheduling a fundraiser in the off-limits state and added “there are signs – despite Senator Clinton’s public pledge to the contrary – that she may be planning to campaign in the state – inquiring about large venues and increased organizing activity – ahead of the Florida primary.”

Check out Burton’s email after the jump.

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No surprise here; Sen Clinton was the only top-tier Democrat on the ballot in Michigan today, and should end up with about 60% of the vote. “Uncommitted” is currently sitting at about 35% — driven up, says the Clinton campaign, due to a radio campaign by Obama backers to get supporters to go to the polls, even though he’s not officially running there.

Why go to any effort to get more “uncommitted” votes? With Clinton nearly guaranteed to win the state, the best her opponents could hope for was an embarrassingly small margin of victory that the press might see as a defeat. Either way, the Obama campaign says MI doesn’t matter — and accused her of ignoring the spirit, if not the letter, of a campaign pledge not to compete in states like Michigan and Florida that moved their primaries into January.

The Clinton campaign shot back that Obama shouldn’t be belittling the voices of voters in Michigan and Florida. Check out the full Clinton campaign response after the jump.

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On primary day in Michigan John McCain seems to be managing expectations about a win. Polls show him running neck and neck with rival Republican Mitt Romney.

Senior advisor Steve Schmidt says a loss for McCain would just be a “quarter-step” back for the Senator, and wouldn’t have much of an impact on his chances in downstate races like South Carolina. However, Schmidt thinks Michigan is a must-win for Romney.

McCain told reporters in Traverse City this morning that he’d like another victory, but he knows the race will be tight.

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McCain is reaching out to Democrats and Independents, and held an afternoon Town Hall with his longtime friend Joe Lieberman, the Senator who happens to call himself an Independent Democrat.

Sarasota, FL — Will a Mitt Romney or John McCain victory in Tuesday’s Michigan primary better help his nomination chances? Apparently, the Giuliani camp is still unsure.

In a rare appearance on the media bus Monday, Giuliani discussed the state of the race, his strategy and sports with the traveling press corps. (The campaign did not allow the discussion to be videotaped.)

The Michigan primary is viewed as Romney’s final chance to win and show his viability and an opportunity for McCain to claim the GOP frontrunner mantle. Giuliani, who is focusing all of his resources in Florida and pulled paid staff from Michigan in recent weeks, admitted his campaign is still assessing how they can best take advantage of the result.

“There is even a debate within my camp about what the right strategic result will be for me,” Giuliani said. “I can’t control it, so I am not gonna have an opinion about it. We are just going to react to whichever way it comes down.”

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John McCain has some new flyers out in South Carolina and Michigan, hitting Mitt Romney on taxes and abortion.

But McCain insists that what he’s doing is NOT negative campaigning. The Senator told reporters in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that the mailers are a general response to Romney’s attacks, rather than a specific response to a particular Romney ad.

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McCain’s mailers accuse Romney of supporting taxpayer funded abortions and raising taxes by $700 million when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Detroit, MI

UPDATE:

Governor Romney spoke more about today’s speech at a press availability at the Detroit Auto Show, which he toured with his family after his address to the Detroit Economic Club:

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ORIGINAL ENTRY:

Governor Romney spoke to the Detroit Economic Club today, the day before the Michigan primary. Tomorrow’s race is do or die for the former Massachusetts governor who was born and raised in this state. He continued to promise to revitalize the struggling automobile industry:

“If I am your President, in my first 100 days, I will roll up my sleeves, and I will personally bring together industry, labor, Congressional and state leaders to develop a plan to rebuild America’s automotive leadership.”

He says there is “no silver bullet” to help the economy here and nationwide, but he wants to increase research spending five times:

“If we are going to be the world’s greatest economic power, we must invest in our future. It’s time to be bold.” He continued, “First, I will make a five-fold increase – from $4 billion dollars to $20 billion dollars – in our national investment in energy research, fuel technology, materials science, and automotive technology.”

He said Washington has to invest in Michigan and not just bemoan the high unemployment rate and failing economy:

“Look how industries in other states have thrived from the spin out of technologies from our investment in these areas. So if we can invest in health care, in defense, and in space, why not also invest in energy and fuel technology here in Michigan?”

In a veiled attack on his rival here, he said that Washington is pessimistic about jobs coming back to Michigan, something John McCain has said previously, but has backed away from in the days before the primary:

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Detroit, MI–

Romney held a rally in Southfield, MI yesterday. I was on Weekend Live from the rally to talk about what Romney’s chances are in his home state of Michigan and his promise of economic revitalization to the people here.

Click below to see the segment:

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