Let me start off by being honest here.

For 75% of the candidates speaking last weekend at the Michigan United People’s Governor Forum, I could’ve very easily just stayed home and wrote this piece out and included their responses even before they made them. They are ridiculously simple to predict and I would’ve easily gotten it pretty darn close to what they actually said with no one being the wiser.

I WOULDN’T do that because that’s not the kind of person that I am.

I also didn’t go to hear what those 75% had to say (although to be fair…some of what those other candidates actually said and how they said it was significantly far more concerning than even I would’ve initially suspected…more on that later).

I went to hear only one person.

Specifically, I wanted to see how he handled himself. More importantly, would he “modify his message” to placate the hostile masses.

Let me just say that what I saw should change your mind (if you haven’t already) regarding this particular candidate for Michigan Governor.

I’ll also get to why I waited this long to post this.

{And those answers are below the fold}

This post will be going to be going in multiple directions given the disorganized mess of how the events that transpired last weekend played out, but hopefully I’ll be able to get the gist across.

Last Saturday after struggling to find decent (and safe) parking at an event on the west-side of town where the church parking lot was filled with more vehicles than people (that I could really see) in the Sanctuary, nearly slipping and falling on the well-kept sidewalks walking up to the Forum, undergoing prisoner processing (they had a large security detail searching each and every attendee before entering), and the having to deal with numerous “volunteers” hell-bent on tripping over one another repeatedly checking everyone for tickets and armbands, I finally got into the event.

 

Aside from that “welcome”, the people who were from the church were very friendly and accommodating towards everyone that I saw in attendance that afternoon.

I didn’t have any illusions that this group stood for what the overwhelming majority of Michiganians actually support. But I will say that I was honestly surprised at how much they tried to have a balanced event that afternoon, even though they totally lost control before the halfway mark. See the image below for more details.

 

After beginning about 20-minutes late, various members of the church and Michigan United introduced themselves to the audience. What was expected from the audience was explained. They actually held their hands up like they do in grade school to get the children to be quiet when they‘re making too much noise and someone is trying to speak…like the gubernatorial candidates (this rule was ignored very quickly, as in less than 30-minutes). Invited speakers from various activist groups would ask questions pertaining to various topics. The candidates would not be furnished with the questions before hand, although the questions should’ve been patently obvious given the groups sponsoring the event. The candidates would be given a set time to respond and there would be no rebuttals or direct attacking of other candidates answers allowed (that went right out the window about 1/3 of the way in).

So one would think that if you were starting late, that you‘d want to get to the featured guests?

Oh no, no, no!

Rather than going directly to the invited candidates that were advertised. Michigan United had everyone listen to Chicago Congressman Luis Guiterrez prattle on for about ten minutes on no-questions-asked-amnesty, open-borders, and how proud he was getting himself arrested multiple times. He never felt it was important to tell everyone exactly what he had to do with the Michigan Gubernatorial race nor any important legislation he has introduced pertaining to benefiting Michigan.

 

After already running behind schedule and now burning up a large chunk of time, the questions were given on the following topics: Environmental Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Education, Health Care, Universal Family Care Immigration and Jobs/Economy.

Onto the candidates.

Contrary to what was advertised, Shri Thanedar was a no-show. No explanation was ever given for his absence. Even though the deacons and pastors gave long, drawn out explanations as to why several of them were not there in the church when they were introducing themselves at the beginning of this event. The same couldn’t be said of Mr. Thanedar.

 

 

 

The lineup was now Sen. Pat Colbeck, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Businessman Bill Cobbs and former Sen Gretchen Whitmer.

 

 

I do have video of the entire event, but as I was watching it with some friends over the weekend, they commented on how it was making their IQ drop the longer the video went on, so to save everyone the torture of watching over two hours of socialist dogma disguised as an honest political forum, I’m just going to have some excerpts below.

Gretchen Whitmer’s responses were nothing spectacular. She burned up most of her allotted time by “thanking” those asking the questions for the “bravery and fortitude” in coming forward on just about every issue and giving generic pat (read: professional politician) responses. I should note that the other people attending who were of the hard-left philosophy didn’t miss that little trick she pulled either.

 

Bill Cobbs essentially parroted the same responses, but with a significant difference: one of those differences was when he told people that what they wanted (i.e. “free” health care, etc.) would come with a significant price tag, and it wouldn’t come right away. I wonder if he tried to peddle these snake oil “solutions” while he worked at Xerox?

 

Dr. El-Sayed is the one to watch out for. It wasn’t that he told the crown everything that they wanted to hear on each and every question, but as I mentioned earlier, he delivers his answers in a charismatic manner (like another Muslim that most readers are very familiar with) in order to sway his audiences.

I highly recommend watching the below responses forewarn yourselves on what the democrat party is really aiming for in 2018.

Finally, there was Sen. Pat Colbeck.

As I mentioned before, this is not a friendly crowd for Conservatives.

Would he buckle under the pressure of a hostile audience? Or, would he stay on message and affirm a philosophy supporting personal responsibility/free-market solutions to the questions that afternoon?

 

I am pleased to report that yes, he did stay on message and didn‘t waffle or change his answers to placate voters unlike other candidates had done at other events (cough, cough…Schuete, Calley). Even though the audience did drown much of his answers and were getting very restless and agitated, I’d recommend listening to his responses below and watching how he handles the audiences reaction. That would be a far better gauge of how well the man would handle the responsibilities and pressure of being Michigan Governor.

I need to add this as I’m wrapping this post up, as the I pointed out earlier, this forum went way beyond its posted schedule. I can only guess that was Michigan United was too preoccupied with having the “social justice” message getting heard, that no one ever bothered looking at their watches the entire time. Starting late didn’t help. Having superfluous speakers from outside of Michigan didn’t help either. But having the activists taking longer and longer to ask their questions, what did they do to get the forum back on schedule? Michigan United organizers chopped the candidates response time to less than half of what was previously stated at the beginning in order to get back on time. It didn’t work and things went downhill from there from a time perspective.

To be fair, this didn’t throw off any of the candidates attending last weekend’s forum.

Let me finish by answering the question of why I waited as long as I did to post this. While I thought that this was an excellent method to see how someone would conduct themselves, I had no illusions as to what this group represents or what their agenda is. Most people in the Detroit-Area (obviously NOT represented here) ,are aware of this as well as I’ve mentioned in a previous post.

The local media felt the same regarding this forum. Even though Channel 4 sent out a news van, with no reporters (I’m guessing to just shoot B-roll that they never used) and someone from the Free Press was one of the moderators, as far as the local media was concerned, this event never happened.

At the very least, it should be noted that this was an excellent test of how Sen. Colbeck would conduct himself if elected Governor. I felt that he conducted himself well in that environment and that fact should be taken into consideration, along with his legislative record to date, by voters when they go to the polls on August 7th.

 

Video Excerpts from Michigan United – People’s Governor Forum:

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Sen. Whitmer Answers health care position…or does she?)

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Mr. Cobbs (Con Con and Progressive Income Tax)

People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Mr. Cobbs (I support free health care…but)

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Dr El Sayed (Free Water)

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Dr. El-Sayed (Single Payer)

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Sen. Pat Colbeck (Education…watch the end of this).

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Sen. Pat Colbeck (Child Care…watch the end of this video).

 

***And I was asked to include this clip last night***

Michigan United People’s Governor Forum Excerpt – Sen. Pat Colbeck (Criminal Justice Reform… what kind of people “boo” a faith-based solution in a church).