Tonight's Debate
The first debate Governor Jennifer M. Granholm (D, MI) and her Republican challenger Dick DeVos is just a couple of hours away. With that in mind, here are a few things that we will be looking for.
From Granholm
No one in their right mind could possibly deny that Michigan has some very serious economic problems. By mere virtue of being the sitting governor, she bears the brunt of responsibility for that - even if there was very little that she could have done to prevent our current problems from happening in the first place. The military calls it "command responsiblity". I call it "the voters want to blame somebody."
With that in mind, I expect to see two things from Granholm this evening.
- Lots of references (either veiled or explicit) to DeVos' connection to Amway;
- An ocassional jab at his inherited wealth and/or the fact that Amway employs fewer people in Michigan today than it did when he took over as the company's president;
- Talking up her accomplishments to date and her plans for Michigan's future.
From DeVos
One of the great challenges of anyone trying to unseat an incumbent is trying to show voters what you would do differently if you were in office. Otherwise, voters are more inclined to go with the candidate they know than the person they don't.
As a result, I'm looking to see a couple of things from DeVos this evening.
- Lots of references to Michigan being the worst in any given category - personal bankruptcies, job growth, whatever. If he can figure out a way to make it stick, blame the first few games of the Detroit Lions' season on Granholm;
- If he's smart, he'll use those attacks to their maximum impact by saying something to the effect of "Michigan is the worst at [fill in the blank here]. That's not acceptable and here's what I would have done differently if I was your governor.
Luckily for Granholm, I doubt DeVos is saavy enough to do that. He'll probably just throw one attack after another at her, and it will probably be the same attacks that Michigan voters have aleady heard a few dozen times.
Of course, if DeVos was really smart, he'll also resist the temptation to defend Amway's reputation during the debate. Amway, after all, is the proverbial tar baby - the more he touches it, the more it sticks to him and traps him.
When the election is over, he can spend his billions to improve Amway's reputation. For the time being, however, he's best served avoiding any association with the company that he used to run. Vice President Dick Cheney (R), for example, used to run Haliburtion - but he never once brought it up during either election because of the negative image the company has in the minds of some Americans.
Amway has that same problem, multiplied by a thousand.
Unfortunately for Republicans, I don't think DeVos is strong enough to resist the temptation.
