Michigan might shape up as a major primary battle in 2008 for the GOP - it was won in 2000 by McCain, but Romney has family connections to the State (son of the former governor); so both men are trooping to Michigan to lay electoral groundwork:

Governor Mitt Romney will speak at a major gathering of Michigan Republicans next month, in his third trip since March to an early primary state that would be crucial for him if he runs for president in 2008.

At least one of Romney's potential competitors for the GOP nomination, Senator John McCain of Arizona, is also scheduled to appear at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, where more than 1,000 elected officials, campaign contributors, conservative advocates, and candidates for a wide range of Michigan political posts will be gathering.

Primaries are a complex political dance - if Romney does run in 2008, then we can presume that he'll do very well in New Hampshire by grace of his being governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and this makes first-in-the-nation New Hampshire much less an electoral test than usual (a win there by Romney would neither make him unstoppable nor would a loss there by everyone else kill their chances). So, early primaries which follow NH will gain in importance - and thus we see prospective candidates going to South Carolina and Michigan to test the waters.

With 2008 shaping up to be the first completely open Presidential race since 1952 (with neither a President or Vice President seeking office) we could see a very large field of candidates in both parties - and this could make for a very long and strange primary season. There hasn't been such a strong chance of an open convention in American politics in 50 years - for those too young to even know what this means: an open convention is one where no candidate has secured sufficient delegate support to secure their party's nomination on the first convention ballot. It is still unlikely that such a thing could happen - but it is something that could happen for both parties. One thing certain, it will be a lot of fun for we political junkies.