On the Republican Side Mitt Romney won 39% to John McCain’s 30%.

On the Democratic Side, Hillary Clinton beat Uncommitted 58% to 40%.

Three interesting notes:

 First, in my opinion, John McCain never had a chance to win Michigan and 30% is a good showing. Mitt Romney was born there and his father was governor of the state. Plus, John McCain is for carbon caps and madatory emissions standards for cars (insane, I know) in a state full of automakers. He also opposed the Bush tax cuts for the richest 1% of Americans (the horror!), which Mitt Romney has pointed out relentlessly. He just leaves out the whole richest 1% part and says McCain against tax cuts in general. That doesn’t play well in a state that is going through a recession. Michigan Republicans’ reasons for not liking him are the same reasons Democrats are starting to get really worried about the potential John McCain, Republican Nominee.

Second, Hillary Clinton won 58% of the vote without Barack Obama or John Edwards on the ballot. State officials wanted to move the primary up in the schedule without the approval of the Democratic National Committee, so the DNC stripped Michigan of its delegates and forbid the candidates from campaigning there. So essentially, the win is meaningless. Although, it is not exactly meaningless in the sense that 40% came out specifically to vote against Clinton. On top of that, 68% of African Americans voted for Uncommitted, which would be a huge blow to Clinton if that trend spread to other states like South Carolina and New York.

And saving the best for last, with 6% of the Republican vote Ron Paul beat Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, and of course, Rudy Guiliani. Again. Rudy, of course, is sticking to his fool-proof strategy of coming in last in all the early states in hopes that it will catipult him into the nomination come Super Tuesday. I just don’t see how that can’t work.

Trevor Timm is a Blast Magazine staff writer