Jennifer Granholm knows all about winning in Michigan. Her insights on tonight’s Michigan primary give us an important insider’s look at voters in this battleground state.
The former Michigan governor joins Politico as a bi-weekly columnist starting today, and her column this week takes a look at the typical geographical division of Republicans in that state.
[U]nlike in the past, Michigan will not be a test of whether the GOP’s historical wings can coexist. Nor will it be a test of whether the party will effectively reach out to the moderates, conservative pragmatists and independents who once found a home in that party. The tea party has nosed them out.
Michigan has been ground zero of the pander festival — with the candidates trying to out-right each other in town halls from Grand Rapids to Detroit. The Detroit News’s conservative editor Nolan Finley lamented Sunday that the Republican candidates haven’t spent enough time on economic issues. He’s right.
But even if they had, their economic platforms have embraced tea party dogma.
Granholm singled out the out-righting efforts of Mitt Romney in her appearance on Current’s The Young Turks this week.
“He has gone so far to the right, I just don’t know how he walks it back,” Granholm tells Current’s Michael Shure.
But what will it all mean for Democrats? From Politico …
I recognize that, as a Democrat, I’m in no position to offer advice to Republicans. But hey, keep it up boys. The version of Republicanism you are offering is a gift to Democrats looking for recruits. The anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-Europe (particularly the French and the Greeks), anti-labor, anti-poor, anti-99 percent and now anti-college graduate rhetoric enables us to eagerly welcome your castoffs into the Democratic Party — where inclusivity is celebrated and their contributions are welcome.
And we come to some parting thoughts from the former governor …
In their zeal to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” what’s left unsaid is the fact that the tea-steeped Republican presidential candidates are bankrupt of new ideas for moving this country forward in an aggressive global economy, bankrupt of compassion for those who are less fortunate and bankrupt of compromise with those who view the issues differently than they do.
Make sure and read the whole article!
