The answer, of course, is slim to none. Or in other words, what part of “no thank you,” do Granholm supporters not understand?
Since he took office, the President has not only nominated a Supreme Court justice, he has filled his entire cabinet, including having to pick an embarrassing three Commerce secretaries. Governor Granholm wasn’t offered any of those jobs.
And my guess is that if he had to pick a fourth Commerce secretary, or a fifth, it wouldn’t be she either. Now I know the governor has said she doesn’t want to go to Washington, that she feels she needs to stay here and work for hard-hit Michigan.
I myself have never wanted to pitch for the Detroit Tigers , either. While I feel certain they could use my considerable talents, which include being able to throw a ball almost twenty feet, I think I was meant to stay here and enlighten and inform all of you.
Naturally, I would have to talk to the Tigers if they called to ask about offering me a contract; that would be nothing more than common courtesy. You understand.
Right. To be brutally honest, something our state’s media have mostly not done here, there is little reason we should ever have expected the President to appoint our governor to a top job.
Think about it. Jennifer Granholm was a Hillary Clinton supporter early last year. Worse, she was a party to the bungled attempt to break the rules and hold Michigan’s Presidential primary earlier than allowed. Barack Obama took his name off the ballot, the primary was a farce, and the resulting mess helped nobody.
Then in November, Obama won Michigan by a landslide so overwhelming that Granholm’s belated support was hardly necessary.
After the election, the bashing of the auto industry by a bunch of Republican Senators in the South, and their refusal to even allow a vote to bail Chrysler and General Motors out was probably enough to make sure Michigan stays blue in the next ten presidential elections.
Meaning, in other words, that the President scarcely needs to make a grand gesture to hold on to Michigan. More important, Governor Granholm doesn’t exactly have a record that would make him excited about appointing her. True, she is charismatic, telegenic, and there’s no whiff of any kind of scandal.
But neither can she point to any major accomplishment. She has often been vacillating, and ineffective. For example, her much-ballyhooed promise to consolidate 18 departments into eight seems to have been forgotten. Even the one department she pledged to eliminate, History, Arts and Libraries, doesn’t seem to be going away.
Now, never say never. Michigan Democrats would love for Granholm to be appointed to something. That would allow Lt. Gov. John Cherry to get out from her shadow and run as an incumbent next year. But the message from Washington is pretty clear: Don’t hold your breath.
Don't forget her over-reliance on the belief that manufacturing would make a big comeback in Michigan and her steadfast rejection of the need to increase C.A.F.E. standards or otherwise encourage Detroit auto manufacturers to produce more fuel efficient vehicles, rather than merely adding more HP, seats and cup holders. Her, highly touted, 21st Century "Jobs Fund" didn't seem to have created anything like the number of new jobs she promised (we haven't heard much about it lately, have we? - seems to have mainly gone to support existing university faculty and students). She also did almost nothing about environmental problems, prisoner and foster-care abuse, medical price gouging, insurance redlining, declining education, worker retraining, or trying to make Michigan more attractive to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other talented individuals who could create new jobs. Instead she mostly just resorted to begging overseas companies to consider providing us with "instant jobs" and lots of money. In exchange for what? - some tax breaks? Yeah...that worked great!
No I think our good Governor should just go back to being a regular, high-priced, lawyer (because we REALLY need some more of them!).
Posted by: George | May 28, 2009 at 04:02 PM
I don't think that Gov. Granholm can go "back to being a regular, high-priced lawyer" because she never was one.
She was a lawyer, to be sure. An assisstant U.S. Attorney (not in private practice, and not "high-priced) and later Michigan's Attorney General; all the while court princess to the Wayne County political fiefdom run by Ed McNamara.
It's a gaping hole in the Granholm resume. No private sector experience whatsoever. She's a pure politician-lawyer.
Well, that's not entirely true. Jennifer Granhom won the Miss San Carlos (CA) beauty pageant, she was a tour guide at Universal Studios, and she was a contestant on the Dating Game. So she knows about those businesses.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 29, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Anonymous comments about the governor is why I have zero respect for intellectual cowards who post under anonymous..
What was the point of posting about her personal hobbies?? Why is this revelant now?
Anonymous= Intellectual Coward
Posted by: Thrasher | May 29, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Kind of like some nothing who lives in his mother's basement and thinks posting on some website really amounts to anything at all.
Thasher = loser
Posted by: Matt | June 02, 2009 at 10:07 AM