Wixom – The Angry Mayor threw the kitchen sink (actually the outhouse toilet) at The Tough Nerd.<\/p>\n
In the only debate of the 2010 governor\u2019s race, Virg Bernero\u2019s challenge was to try and drag Rick Snyder off his white horse \u2013 the legendary, iconic white horse of a successful entrepreneur rising to the people\u2019s rescue in difficult times \u2013 and into the muck. Once there, Bernero might have a fighting chance. \u201cThe Chief Executive Outsourcer,\u201d said Bernero, dropping his bombshell, had not only outsourced Gateway\u2019s jobs to China but was vested in a company called Discera \u201cthat had shipped jobs to China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Snyder,\u201d said the Angry Mayor in his angriest smolder, \u201chow could you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Snyder might have answered that Symmetry \u2013 a company that Bernero credits himself with bringing to Lansing \u2013 has outsourced hundreds of jobs to the Far East to make its medical devices. He might have pointed out that Discera is a small startup of 41 employees that has opened a tiny, 5-man office in Shenzhen to serve customers there. Or he might have laughed at Bernero\u2019s flat-earth protectionism, pointing out that, were it not for General Motor\u2019s massively profitable investment with Chinese government-owned Shanghai Motors, the Detroit Company would not be able to finance UAW pensions.<\/p>\n
But Snyder stayed firm in his saddle. He said Discera was an Ann Arbor-based company that \u201cdoes not have an operation in China\u201d and that the Center for Michigan\u2019s \u201cTruth Squad\u201d had found Snyder\u2019s ad claims of Gateway outsourcing \u201csimply untrue.\u201d Then he returned to his tested, positive platitudes that \u201cI am the only job creator in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n
The refusal to jump into the mud and beat some sense into Bernero\u2019s empty head will disappoint those (like me) who crave these teachable moments. But by staying the high road, Snyder won this debate and locked up the election.<\/p>\n
In the end, this was a debate played on Snyder\u2019s terms. Recognizing that this is an election about job creation in Michigan\u2019s worst economy in a generation, Bernero has made this a contest of who can create more jobs. Yet despite reading from the GOP playbook on job creation, low taxes, and balanced budgets, The Angry Mayor cannot win this game. Snyder\u2019s American success story of growing tiny Gateway Computer to a 10,000-employee behemoth in the 1990s is his trump card.<\/p>\n
Bernero has tried to puncture that resume by caricaturing his opponent with a pampered-rich-guy-who doesn\u2019t-care-about-you-but-loves-foreigners campaign.<\/p>\n
But the rich guy charge is ridiculous on its face: Why would a multimillionaire take a $172,000 public employee job if he didn\u2019t care about Michigan? And Snyder is no trust-baby, but a self-made man who \u201cgrew up in a 900-foot square home in Battle Creek\u201d as Snyder reminded the TV audience.<\/p>\n
And the foreigner bashing? Tasteless. Consider: Bernero himself is the son of Italian immigrants. If his father were Chinese he would have to disown him.<\/p>\n
What a difference four years makes. In 2006, Jennifer Granholm \u2013 another silver-tongued Democrat \u2013 wiped the debate floor with Dick Devos, a job-creating businessman trailing in the polls and challenging her Big Government ways. Granholm bashed him on sending jobs to China, and selling out Michigan women on abortion and other social issues.<\/p>\n
But this is \u201ca different economy, a different environment,\u201d says Saul Anuzis, who was Michigan GOP Chief in 2006. \u201cThis year, 56 percent of voters rate jobs the #1 issue. The next closest issue ge ts only nine percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In tonight\u2019s debate, social issues merited just one question 50 minutes into the hour-long debate. Tonight, Michigan\u2019s unemployment rate has swelled from 7 percent in 2006 to 15 percent. Tonight, the businessman who created jobs is up 20 point in the polls.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s on his white horse and Michigan prays he has a plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wixom – The Angry Mayor threw the kitchen sink (actually the outhouse toilet) at The Tough Nerd. In the only debate of the 2010 governor\u2019s race, Virg Bernero\u2019s challenge was to try and drag Rick Snyder off his white horse \u2013 the legendary, iconic white horse of a successful entrepreneur rising to the people\u2019s rescue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5826,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions\/5826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}