Payne: President Mitt Snyder

Posted by hpayne on November 4, 2012

n the morning of Mitt Romney’s first presidential debate against Barack Obama, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder took over three hours of highly-rated, drive-time talk radio- as Paul W. Smith’s guest host on Detroit’s WJR – and never mentioned his fellow Republican (nor did he mention his party’s candidate for Senate, Pete Hoekstra, much less invite him on the air).

One Tough Nerd has always made known his discomfort with partisan politics. But in a year in which the national election looms as the most important in memory, Snyder’s reticence to sing Romney’s praises from the rooftops is particularly curious because businessman-turned-governor Snyder is probably the best model for what a businessman-turned-resident Romney presidency would look like.

From his investment banker roots to beating a crowded primary field of more conservative GOP candidates to the bitter, Democratic class warfare campaign waged against him, Snyder’s road to CEO of Michigan is a mirror-image of Romney’s 2012 road to the White House.

What would Romney do in office? Again, look to Michigan under Snyder.

A data-driven business geek, Snyder’s governorship has been a welcome, bipartisan respite from the chaotic, incompetent management style of his predecessor, Jennifer Granholm. So too would data-driven Romney be a desperately needed antidote to Divider-in-Chief Barack Obama’s management-challenged style.

With metronomic efficiency, Snyder has analyzed and addressed Lansing’s long-term liabilities. Romney would likely do the same with Washington’s out-of-control entitlement programs. Snyder is not a professional pol, meaning he can afford to be bolder in his structural changes. Ditto Romney.

Yet, while Snyder is markedly non-partisan in his rhetoric (Romney too has made the only bipartisan noises this presidential campaign), his tenure has been marked by bitter partisanship from Democrats with no desire for compromise. Expect the same in Washington, which is why a Romney victory without significant GOP gains in the Senate could lead to a gridlocked presidency. Snyder’s first two years have been remarkably productive – despite Democratic brickbats – because he has had the Republican votes in the legislature to get things done.

An Obama victory, by contrast, will look like Granholm’s historically dysfunctional second term from 2007-2010: rudderless, picking partisan fights, ignoring the state’s long-term structural problems, and believing in the tooth fairy fantasy that green technology will transform the economy.

Governor Snyder is Mitt Romney’s best argument for electing a businessman. A pity Snyder has been shy to make the point.

 

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