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By Scott Conroy - February 16, 2012

Following his bruising defeats in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary four years ago, Mitt Romney's hopes for mounting a comeback against John McCain and Mike Huckabee seemed dim when his campaign plane landed in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Jan. 9, 2008.

Over the next week, Romney mentioned at nearly every opportunity his connection to the state in which he was born and raised, repeatedly citing the "thrill" of returning to a place where the "trees are just the right height, almost all of the cars are American-made" and where the locals "know that 'pop' refers to a drink, not a relative."

At just about every campaign stop, he told old stories about the Ramblers that American Motors manufactured under the...