Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, was chairman of AMC Motors in Michigan from 1954-62 and later governor of the state from 1962-68. You would think that helps him with the upcoming Republican presidential primary. Think again!

The current polls show Mike Huckabee slightly ahead of Romney with John McCain, the New Hampshire primary winner, placing a close third. Huckabee is leading in the polls although Michigan isn't considered an evangelical Christian state.

Although Michigan has an impressive and large public university system as well as fresh water and conservative Midwestern values, the state has suffered due to the collapse of the American automobile industry. New service or high technology industries haven't successfully replaced the manufacturing base with well-paying, steady jobs.

In November 2007, Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.4 percent. It has been hit hard by the housing crisis. ''In December, the Detroit Free Press printed the list of properties delinquent on property taxes in Wayne County (the county that includes Detroit and many of its suburbs). The list of 180,000 properties ran 121 pages.''

Romney has many things going against him in Michigan that won't appeal to many voters. He supports free trade which is anathema to the UAW and its members. Romney is a Reagan optimist where many of the people are pessimistic about the future of America. Reagan Democrats don't appreciate his views regarding extending the Bush tax cuts; ignoring the mortgage crisis and running away from his record of expanding the social safety net while governor of Massachusetts.

His private sector position as a manager of Bain Capital's private equity business will hurt him too. People in Michigan don't associate private equity with profits and prosperity. It reminds them of Cerberus, the current owner of Chrysler, who is proposing huge job cuts to the auto workers.

Mike Huckabee is presently running ads in Michigan stating the following: ''most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.''

Another reason Romney might not do so well is the Arab-American voting bloc. Currently, 115,000 Arab-Americans reside in Michigan which constitutes about 1 percent of the total population. However, they do vote in high numbers and George W. Bush successfully courted them while he was running for the presidency in 2000. Former governor Romney paints all Arabs with a broad brush much like Rudy Giuliani. He doesn't differentiate between Sunnis and Shiites; Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood. This isn't going to sit well with the Arabs in Michigan.

Many people in Michigan don't remember Mitt's father George. You would be 62 years old today if you were alive to see George Romney's last gubernatorial campaign of 1966. Recent Michigan Republican history doesn't bode well for Romney either. Richard DeVos was the billionaire founder of Amway and a sort of iconic Michigan figure. His son, Dick DeVos, ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2006 promising the voters tax cuts coupled with social conservative positions on abortion and gay marriage. Although spending tens of millions of dollars from his family fortune, he was resoundingly defeated.