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McCain to be back in-state, Obama distances himself from Michigan, not KilpatrickBy Nick, Section News
Sure, new census numbers indicate moms and dads are packing up their kids, their belongings and their lives and fleeing the state in staggering numbers. Yes, the Holland Sentinel might be reporting van rental numbers showing that 156,000 people have fled the state in the last three years, 73,000 of them last year alone. And yeah, a new study by MichiganFuture.org indicates young families are avoiding the Great Lakes State ("shun" was the Grand Rapids Press's word), with Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing containing populations fifty percent less concentrated in young professionals than Chicago, Minneapolis and Madison, WI but if anything that makes a little national attention that much more important.
Michigan still has seventeen electoral votes. We'll likely lose one or two after the next census but Detroit could fall into the river while Menominee County begs for annexation into Wisconsin and we'd still carry some girth this election cycle. Only makes sense, then, that John McCain is returning to the battleground state again tomorrow, this time traveling with my favorite "Independent" member of the Senate, Joe Lieberman (no, that should not be read as a VP endorsement). The duo will be holding a series of fundraisers over in voter-rich South East Michigan and meeting with faith and grassroots voter groups. Senator McCain has clearly made Michigan one of the centerpieces of his campaign. Polling now consistently rates him within the margin of error in a state that hasn't gone red since 1988... when I was nine. That's a long time. We're the home of big labor. We're the home of gay special-rights extremists like Jon Stryker. We're the home of Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm... and of Detroit. Michigan isn't supposed to go red. But here we are... and here, literally, John McCain is. The Kwame Kilpatrick saga? Having zero impact on McCain's willingness to visit metro Detroit. Contrast that with his opponent, Barack Obama. By the time the Republican candidate arrives tomorrow the mayor of Detroit may very well be back in jail. McCain has no problem distancing himself from the Democratic Mayor of the State's largest city. Kwame hasn't held any fundraisers for him. Kwame isn't one of his "super delegates" (in the GOP we use archaic things like election results to pick our candidates). Senator Obama? He took the occasion of Kwame's jailing and sundry other national Democratic Party scandals to get out of dodge (and onto a beach in Hawaii... poor, common man) and has yet to do so much as condemn and disavow his loyal supporter. Maybe the two are every bit as cozy as the Senator's statements last year seem to imply?
Read on...
The cry from the left continues to be a resounding "no fair." Those were just platitudes, they assert. "Just words?" I imagine their candidate answering. If anyone in recent political memory has put a premium on his words and the weight with which he expects them to be understood it is this candidate. But a plagiarized speech from Deval Patrick not withstanding, Obama and team MDP continue to speak volumes with their silence.
The Senator could return from vacation today and issue a strong condemnation, returning his bundled cash and asking the Mayor to resign for the good of the State. The Governor could act TODAY, not September 3rd, cutting the cord and yanking the accused felon from office, saving the taxpayers in the city of Detroit millions of dollars and sparing the region another two months of interminable shame and embarrassment. Mark Brewer and the Michigan Democratic Party could stand up and say "no more," taking away the potent political cover they continue to give the man driving global perception of my home state deeper into the septic tank. Of course they haven't and won't do any of that. The sad reality is that with Barack Obama and Michigan Democrats, cronyism and parochial defense of the "Party" trump little things like jobs, global perception among job makers and influence leaders and that pesky rule of law. They've got every opportunity now to nip this thing in the bud, to move past the same old partisanship and to do the right thing for the state. Because if it isn't Kwame Kilpatrick being prepped in the face of oncoming traffic it'll be Michigan they're tossing under the bus.
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