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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Is Mitt Romney Repeating Dick DeVos' Mistakes?


    By Conservative First, Section News
    Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2012 at 02:23:42 AM EST
    Tags: Mitt Romney, Jennifer Granholm, Barack Obama, Dick DeVos (all tags)

    This column by Nolan Finley of the Detroit News draws some uncomfortable parallels between the current presidential race and Michigan's 2006 gubernatorial race between Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos.

    Finley: Obama using Granholm's playbook

    In both races, there was a charismatic but incompetent democrat incumbent running against a Republican rich businessman challenger.  In both cases, the democrats blamed the preceding Republican for the poor state of the economy and claimed that it would otherwise be worse.  They attacked the Republican challengers for being rich and falsely claimed they outsourced jobs.

    Of course, there are some differences as well.  Romney has actually won an election before, and he has a much broader fundraising base.  2006 was an anti-republican wave, which 2012 shows no signs of being.

    The strategy of letting a bad economy sink an incumbent certainly can work.  But it can also fail if the incumbent is clever enough about blaming others for the economic problems and insisting that "it would have been worse otherwise" (which cannot be conclusively disproven, after all).

    So what did Dick DeVos do wrong?  As I wrote at the time,
    More seriously, DeVos never made a compelling case for why he should be governor. He pointed out Michigan's uniquely bad economy and blamed the governor. But he never really explained why it was her fault or what he would do differently. Meanwhile, after years of promising government miracles, Granholm eventually more accurately blamed systematic factors like the bad state of the auto industry. I don't doubt that Granholm contributed to the state's problems, or that DeVos would have been a better governor. But government cannot make the economy do well.

    DeVos also completely ignored social issues in his campaign. He gave up many valuable opportunities to hammer the Governor on her record. She vetoed the partial birth abortion ban, opposed the concealed carry law when it was passed, opposed the state marriage amendment, and opposed limiting the expansion of gambling. On all these issues, a clear majority of Michiganders were on the opposite side of the governor.

    Instead, he focused solely on Michigan's bad economy, hoping to ride it to victory without having to talk about "divisive" social issues. In a better year, with a different opponent, that might have worked. But he gave up the opportunity to peel voters away from Granholm on all these issues.

    Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that DeVos should have focused exclusively or mainly on these issues. The economy was definitely the number one issue. But it was not the only issue.

    DeVos's biggest mistake was opposing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which passed by a large margin despite the opposition of top Republicans.  He could have done a lot better if he had supported it.
    If Republican gubernatorial nominee Dick DeVOS had received the votes of the Republicans, ticket splitters and only 5 percent of the Democrats who voted yes on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) and for Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM, he would have won the 2006 election, a recent report concluded.
    So what does this have to do with Mitt Romney?  While the economy should be his main focus, it shouldn't be the only issue.  He needs to connect to white working class voters skeptical of a big business guy.
    • He should attack Obama's illegal executive order granting amnesty to many illegal aliens.  This ties back to the economy as well, since illegal aliens take jobs that could be filled by Americans.
    • Romney could certainly pledge to end affirmative action as president.  This is certainly an important economic issue to many Americans.
    • Romney should attack Obama's disastrous gunwalker program, which attacked the Second Amendment rights of American.  It is a scandal far worse than Watergate.
    These issues all poll better than the budget-cutting that Romney has been hinting at.

    Will Romney make the necessary corrections in time?  If not, in five years, you're gonna be blown away.

    < Sundays Divertere: The Democratic Party War on Wisdom | Time to Call the Realtor? >


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    $24 Trillion debt second Obama term? (none / 0) (#1)
    by Corinthian Scales on Mon Sep 10, 2012 at 10:23:08 AM EST
    Look, our nation has 1 in 6 unemployed under Obama and a Reid controlled Senate.  U-6 figures show a real 14% unemployment figure.  89 million are no longer are part of our workforce.  We also have 47 million on food stamps.  House and Senate control since 01/07, and complete control of White House, House, and Senate from 01/09 - 01/11?  This is a failed Democratic Party record.

    And, if one really wants to get down to it, pResident Obeauzeau's Jobs Council has Made-in-China written all over it.

    Do I read anything from Mr. Finley about that?  No.  Mr. Finley would rather carry on in his pants p!ssing past over a pyramid scheme weasel, of which, Amway itself says that it would be 1/10th of what it is today if it weren't for baby aborting ChiCom money, than actually confronting the Chicago machination hypocrisy head on.

    Then, Mr. Finley goes on to bring up Bain.  I am so sick of hearing about Bain from both sides.  Matter of fact, I do not want to hear so much as a peep from Mary Sue Coleman, or Public Sector Goonion members about Bain.

    Nolan is not the sharpest spork in the drawer.  His ignorance does much grunt work for Obamabots.

    If there is not a focused effort with getting people off the dole and back to work, with a repeal of assclown Roberts "It's a Tax" decision, and getting a control on spending... all the Social Conservative wailing in the world will matter little as America transitions to Greece.

    My take on this. (none / 0) (#2)
    by KG One on Mon Sep 10, 2012 at 04:22:14 PM EST
    Given Willard's failure to use surrogates to highlight Pres. B.O.'s own record (i.e Palin, Cain, West or even Newt...who will stomp a mudhole into anyone from the not-ready-for-primetime-players), since he is obviously unwilling to point it out forcefully himself, the only hope Willard has to gain ground is during the debates.

    October is kind of close to the election.

    He's better have a Plan "B" at the ready.

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