Why did John McCain pull out of Michigan? Maybe because Michigan is stuck on stupid

The Flint Journal ^ | October 12, 2008 | John Tomlinson

[2ndDivisionVet]

Why did Sen. John McCain pull out of Michigan?

Knee-jerk voters.

A new Rasmussen Poll said 59 percent of Americans believe our legislators are so inept, they'd vote to replace the entire Congress. I bet the other 41 percent live in Michigan.

Maybe McCain pulled out because he found us so stuck on stupid, he decided to go to where people would listen

He realized what we all realize. Voters in Michigan vote for the same person decade after decade, even after that person proves to be the worst imaginable one for the job.

According to the 2008 University of Michigan Millennium Report, Detroit is now the poorest city in America. Yet its residents, knowing the devastation firsthand, continued to vote for Kwame Kilpatrick like he was Coleman Young.

Or take U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. According to the report, Michigan is 46th in the nation at getting federal tax dollars back as budget expenditures. The Keynesian multiplier, a way to calculate the economic effect of this shortfall, says this had three times the effect of the auto industry contraction on our state's economy.

Further, we only get back 92 percent of federal taxes on gasoline purchased in our state. The shortfall, about $90 million, which should go to repair Michigan roads and bridges, gets spent in other states.

Why? Because Levin, whose responsibility it is to oversee getting that money back, is so busy trying to affect the surrender of U.S. forces to al-Qaida in Iraq, he doesn't have time to help Michigan. Yet this fall, he's going to again win by a landslide. Name the last great thing he did for the people of Michigan. I can't. Can you?

According to the report, Michigan has become, under the last eight years of Democrat leadership, including representation at the state and federal levels, all of the following:

• 50th in the nation in personal income growth.

• 50th in the nation in its unemployment rate.

• 50th in the nation in employment growth.

• 50th in the nation in the Index of Economic Momentum.

This happened because we will not change. We're now below Mississippi and still falling. How long will it be before Detroit begins to envy Beirut? Thanks to our legislators, we have nothing on the horizon to stop this free-fall.

Nevertheless, we're voting for Barack Obama. We want the guy who, getting enormous amounts of cash from Fannie Mae, second only to Sen. Christopher Dodd, helped block the 2005 Fannie Mae reform designed to prevent the current collapse. Just as an aside, McCain sponsored that bill.

But don't worry, with McCain gone, we'll keep voting Democratic like always, and everything will be just hunky-dory. Yes?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Ouch!

[Minus_The_Bear]

[nhwingut]

[Chipper]

Can we please give Detroit to Canada? This state would be so much better off.

[jersey117]

These are good points for McCain to use in the debate. The rats have been running your state and look where you are — yet you’re voting for Obama. Stuck on stupid indeed.

[ari-freedom]

Or take U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. According to the report, Michigan is 46th in the nation at getting federal tax dollars back as budget expenditures. The Keynesian multiplier, a way to calculate the economic effect of this shortfall, says this had three times the effect of the auto industry contraction on our state’s economy.

Keynesian economics? See, even this author is stuck on stupid.

[Perdogg]

I thought Palin would be returning to MI. Check out this group

Tour Schedule

http://www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com/

Wednesday, October 15th 10:00 AM – Sacramento, California Rally & News Conference State Capitol Park Veterans Memorial Obelisk Near intersection of 13th & N Streets Downtown Sacramento, CA

3:00 PM – Reno/Carson CIty, Nevada Rally & News Conference Mills Park On the grassy area near the Pavilion Carson City, NV

Thursday, October 16th 9:00 AM – Elko, Nevada Rally & News Conference Elko City Park Cement slab - near bleachers Elko, NV

3:30 PM – Ely, Nevada Rally & News Conference County Park Ely, NV

Friday, October 17th 10:00 AM – Las Vegas/Henderson, Nevada Rally & News Conference Sonata Park 1550 Seven Hills Drive Henderson, NV

5:00 PM – Flagstaff, Arizona Rally & News Conference Southeast corner of City Hall Corner of Humphreys and Route 66 Flagstaff, AZ

Saturday, October 18th 12:00 Noon – Gallup, New Mexico Rally & News Conference Veterans Park Gallup, NM - tentative

3:30 PM – Albuquerque, New Mexico Rally & News Conference Roosevelt Park Albuquerque, NM - tentative (leapfrog0202 confirmed w/organizer that Albuquerque visit almost 100% assured)

7:00 PM – Santa Fe, New Mexico Rally & News Conference

Sunday, October 19th 9:00 AM – Raton, New Mexico Rally & News Conference Ripley Park Raton, NM

12:00 Noon – Pueblo, Colorado Rally & News Conference Belmont Park Between Bonforte Boulevard and Jerry Murphy Pueblo, CO

3:00 PM – Colorado Springs, Colorado Rally & News Conference America the Beautiful Park Colorado Springs, CO

6:00 PM – Denver, Colorado Rally & News Conference Lincoln Park Ampitheater 1144 Osage Street Denver, CO

Monday, October 20th 8:30 AM – Colby, Kansas Rally & News Conference Fike Park Intersection of Franklin Avenue and Eighth Street Colby, Kansas

4:00 PM – Kansas City, Missouri Rally & News Conference Washington Square Park Northeast corner of Penn Valley Park Intersection of Pershing Road and Main Street Kansas City, MO

Tuesday, October 21st 9:00 AM – St. Louis, Missouri Rally & News Conference

12:30 PM – Springfield, Illinois Rally & News Conference

5:30 PM – Chicago, Illinois Rally & News Conference

Wednesday, October 22nd 10:00 AM – Madison, Wisconsin Rally & News Conference 2:00 PM – Milwaukee, Wisconsin Rally & News Conference 6:00 PM – Green Bay, Wisconsin Rally & News Conference

Thursday, October 23rd 9:00 AM – Iron Mountain, Michigan Rally & News Conference City Park West A Street Iron Mountain, MI

12:30 PM – Marquette, Michigan Rally & News Conference

5:30 PM – Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Friday, October 24th 12:00 Noon – Alpena, Michigan Rally & News Conference 5:00 PM – Traverse City, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Saturday, October 25th 10:00 AM – Grand Rapids, Michigan Rally & News Conference 1:30 PM – Lansing, Michigan Rally & News Conference State Capitol grounds

3:30 PM – Brighton, Michigan Rally & News Conference

5:30 PM – Detroit Area, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Sunday, October 26th 10:00 AM – Toledo, Ohio Rally & News Conference 2:30 PM – Dayton, Ohio Rally & News Conference 6:00 PM – Cincinnati, Ohio Rally & News Conference

Monday, October 27th 10:00 AM – Columbus, Ohio Rally & News Conference 3:30 PM – Cleveland, Ohio Rally & News Conference

Tuesday, October 28th 9:00 AM – Erie, Pennsylvania Rally & News Conference 2:30 PM – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Rally & News Conference 6:30 PM – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Rally & News Conference

Wednesday, October 29th 12:00 Noon – Washington, D.C. Arrival TBA – Press Conference with National Press Corps

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Don’t worry if Hussein-O wins all America shall take a giant step towards becoming just like Detroit.

[Tribune7]

She's campaigning in Illinois????? In Chicago???

[Prole]

It's just depressing, really.

It has come to my understanding that majority of people in rural Michigan are real Americans.

Grand Rapids and Detroit continue to elect democrats?

I know about Detroit's mentality, but what's wrong with Grand Rapids?

[teletech]

He pulled out of Michigan for the same reason he never campaigned in Illinois.

[jersey117]

Don’t worry if Hussein-O wins all America shall take a giant step towards becoming just like Detroit.

Yep. Just look what he's done for the southside of Chicago. Stupid people.

[teletech]

I read that GM is now in talks with Ford. WOW!

[Joe Boucher]

Much surprised the Upper hasn’t gone to war to secede from lower Michigan.
The demographics are just so very different.

[Clintonfatigued]

I was stunned when the McCain campaign ANNOUNCED that it was pulling out of Michigan. As Ophelia Ford would put it,
“That was DUMB!!!!!!!!”

[fantom]

As is Chrysler. Michigan is the armpit of America , without the Universities they would turn the lights out. I wouldn't spend an hour or a dime in that 3rd world cesspool.

[Syncro]

Our Campaign to Save Michigan! Click Here !

Learn more about our $500,000+ campaign and web-a-thon to defeat the Obama-Biden ticket in the Great Lake State!

[teletech]

As is Chrysler. Michigan is the armpit of America , without the Universities they would turn the lights out. I wouldn't spend an hour or a dime in that 3rd world cesspool.

I live in The Peoples Republik of Illinois so I KNOW what you mean!

[ncfool]

The democrats and the Unions caused the problem in Michigan. They both drove the jobs from America. Add on top of that Gov agencies like EPA and OSHA and the NLRB among others and you can see why the rust belt is in trouble. Kiss GM good bye an later Ford and Chrysler. America is no longer a producing nation but is now a nation of consumers.

With Obama - Biden you will get massive unemployeement and the failure of capitalism.

I am a business owner and employee a large work force. If the socialist tax and regulate my business more then I will pull the plug. I can take care of my family for the rest of my life and theirs but will not allow my 4th generation business fail under the Obama economic policies.

The people that I feel the worse for is the innocent hard working American who is being sold to China as this is now a CAN’T DO country instead of a CAN DO nation.

Save America Vote for McCain. Tell anybody you know to pay attention that Bigger Gov is not the answer. America needs Free enterprise and Small business.

[Syncro]

The top link in my above post doesn’t work, the one under the picture does.

[traviskicks]

I am in michigan right now and driving through detroit is amazing, whole blocks abandon and 10 story buildings stretching for 5-6 blocks with broken windows. Of course, the radio is filled with ‘public pronoucements’ from various agencies, I see plenty of cops around, and all the hospitals are state owned, walmart is banned, and the teachers unions are on strike. It looks like government is big, unions are powerful, taxes are high, and the result is apparent just by driving down the street. Very sad.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’m reading they are in merger negotiations with Chrysler: http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/012041.html

[teletech]

I’m reading they are in merger negotiations with Chrysler:

I read they are in talks with Chrysler too but have also had talks with Ford.

[VanDeKoik]

GR has become a college town of sorts.

Lots of old homes that are cheap for hipsters, hippies, and lots of apartments for low-income folks. Toss in the homeless shelters that are a magnet for bums from all over the nation, and the large illegal alien population, along with the solid Democrat area west of the Grand River, and it’s pretty much a machine town.

Most conservatives moved to Wyoming, Grandville, Jension, and points further out. It keeps Kent County red while the city goes blue.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yet here in Dallas/Fort Worth, companies are still hiring, gas is $2.50/gallon, restaurants and stores are full of customers, etc., etc.

[judsonlegacy]

“Detroit Area” is pretty vague and covers a lot of (demographic) ground. I’m betting on a Macomb event.

[Terpfen]

Ford is recovering just fine without GM, and are releasing a slew of all-new cars next year. Why would they want the GM albatross around their neck just as they’re regaining their reputation?

[Syncro]

Our Country Deserves Better PAC is going on a nationwide tour at the end of this month, leaving in a few days.

Here are the stops in Michigan:

Thursday, October 23rd

9:00 AM – Iron Mountain, Michigan Rally & News Conference

City Park

West A Street

Iron Mountain, MI

12:30 PM – Marquette, Michigan Rally & News Conference

5:30 PM – Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Friday, October 24th

12:00 Noon – Alpena, Michigan Rally & News Conference

5:00 PM – Traverse City, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Saturday, October 25th

10:00 AM – Grand Rapids, Michigan Rally & News Conference

1:30 PM – Lansing, Michigan Rally & News Conference

State Capitol grounds

3:30 PM – Brighton, Michigan Rally & News Conference

5:30 PM – Detroit Area, Michigan Rally & News Conference

Michigan can be won!

Oh, and don't pay any attention to the red x's, they aren't anything except irritating little HTML thingies.

[teletech]

Ford is recovering just fine without GM, and are releasing a slew of all-new cars next year. Why would they want the GM albatross around their neck just as they’re regaining their reputation?

I never said they did. I said they had talked. I really don't know why Chrysler would want GM either.

[judsonlegacy]

Grand Rapids is solidly conservative and Republican. Parts southwest are probably the most Republican in the country.

There are townships (e.g. Overisel) 90+ percent Republican. It doesn’t get any better than that anywhere.

[razorback-bert]

Mississippi thanks Michigan.

[Terpfen]

I know what you said, I’m wondering why Ford would even answer the phone call. Chrysler and GM makes more sense than Ford and GM.

Of course, I always thought GM cars were piles of scrap, and I’m buying a Ford in 2-3 days, so what do I know?

[republicanbred]

Michigan is my very own state, which I love dearly but we truly are “stuck on stupid.” It will be the big liberal cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor and Lansing who will carry the state for Obama. They are the very same cities that carried the state for Jennifer Granholm, our inept and pathetic governor.
The unions have run amok in the state and ruined it for hard working non-union people and businesses. With state leaders like Kwame be da’ mayor and the pro-death “Catholic” Governor Granholm, we get what we deserve!

[teletech]

I know what you said, I’m wondering why Ford would even answer the phone call. Chrysler and GM makes more sense than Ford and GM.

Of course, I always thought GM cars were piles of scrap, and I’m buying a Ford in 2-3 days, so what do I know?

I like Chevrolet myself. Although my wife owns a beautiful 1955 Ford Thunderbird.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Don’t take this the wrong way, it’s only a question...why don’t the “hard working non-union people and businesses” move to a state more receptive to them? Several come to mind, including Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Idaho and Alaska.

[Terpfen]

Chevrolet? Ah, GM’s French division.

[ggekko60506]

To Mighiganders:

Please explain to me how Devos lost to Granholm in the Governors race.

[epow]

How long will it be before Detroit begins to envy Beirut?

Here's another pertinent question, how long before Detroit becomes the capitol of the Islamic state of Wayne county?

[mcshot]

We have a few dumb ones here. Union type with one on our road.

[judsonlegacy]

Grand Rapids long had a blue pocket but when did it spread?

[judsonlegacy]

Where do poor people live in DFW?

[Tribune7]

I think it would be really cool to rename it Starnesville

[judsonlegacy]

The same reason the unions continue to run the economy into the ground. Nobody wants to volunteer for a wage cut. (It wouldn’t be a wage cut in Alaska, but who wants 20 hours of cold and dark?)

[grellis]

If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.

[truthguy]

Yes Michigan is in a lot of trouble. One reason is because so many good people have left the state. I know some wonderful people who left Michigan because of the same reasons mentioned in the article. These are the type of people Michigan can ill afford to lose.
Detroit is for all practical purposes a third world city. It may be beyond redemption. It's problems are so enormous that other cities look good by comparison. Detroit was a healthy thriving middle class city in the late 1940’s. What happened? Well I'll let the reader figure that one out. Suffice it to say if you have to ask the question you wouldn't understand or accept the answer.
The intellectual atmosphere in at U of Michigan is a intellectual cesspool. My boss was undergrad there but was in Engineering and was isolated from the idiocy that goes on in the Liberal Arts Departments. He has an infinity of stories about the state of affairs at U of M. If Michigan were a business it would be in chapter 11. It would be in bankruptcy court.
If all of this were not enough, there is a tremendous increase in the Muslim population in Michigan. I hear Dearborn is for all intensive proposes a Muslim City. What other cities will follow? Dhimmitude is in the future for Michigan.
It may take an act of God to save Michigan.

[truthguy]

No it’s not Ford, but Chrysler. Get your facts straight!

[judsonlegacy]

I didn’t know Detroit even had 10-story buildings outside of downtown. And what’s the deal with Walmart? I just went to their website and they have ZERO stores in Detroit.

[grellis]

DeVos simply did not get his message out. The campaign was run in a gentlemanly fashion (again--waaaay stuck on stupid!). I think some of the big brains in the campaign thought that going after Molehern aggressively might not sit well with the idiots that voted her in the first time.

A few months after the campaign, when the state econ really started tanking, I found myself talking to a couple of my neighbors. They were railing against the Governor, whom they all admitted to have voted for. When I asked them why they hadn't voted for DeVos--a successful businessman--they said the same thing: "He sent jobs to China!!!"

Absolutely. Clueless. Sheep.

The truly sad thing: I'll bet anyone dinner at Clara's that the next governor of Michigan is a democrat. Any takers?

[meyer]

If I were McCain, I'd use Detroit as the poster child of failed leftist policy. As you said, big unions, big government, anti-business, and....

...empty. Abandoned. Just like the US will be if Obama takes control.

[VanDeKoik]

Envy of the Devos bank account.

It’s kind of the “in” thing to hate them for being so successful, and putting their name on lots of places/buildings that they helped create, so West Michigan wasn’t as strong for him as it should have been.

Hope he runs next time. Something tells me he will be an easy win.