DeVos wins the first debate!
The best line of the night…Dick DeVos:
"It is unbelievable for the governor to say here tonight that her jobs plan is working when the rest of Michgian is not."
Style vs Substance. I would argue the Governor was “smoother”, her “stage presence” was better, she looked more relaxed and comfortable in front of a camera...well what would you expect from a Harvard trained lawyer and a UC Berkley acting student. Dick DeVos hit it on the issues. He talked a jobs, leadership, management, disappointment and result.
If you asked folks what themes they both put forth…the Governor’s theme had to be “blame”…everything was someone elses fault…accepting no responsibility, acknowledging any problems. Almost 100,000 jobs lost under her Administration…not her fault….releasing murderers under her Corrections Department…not her fault…have a jobs “plan” that isn’t working…not her fault…not providing leadership and policies to bring jobs to Michigan…not her fault.
Dick DeVos’s themes…jobs, jobs, jobs. Dick DeVos can provide the leadership necessary to turn Michigan around. Dick DeVos understands and has competed and sold Michigan made products in the world market. Dick DeVos isn’t looking to blame anyone, he wants to provide the leadership and management skills necessary to turn Michigan around.
Governor Granholm also threw out distortions and misrepresentations to confuse voters. She played the “china card”, which isn’t true…not a single job was ever outsourced to China…not one. She threw out a “connect the dots” card bringing up the fact that the DeVos family owned less than 1% of the stock in a publicly held company and therefore was responsible for mismanagement and abuses that occurred there.
This Governor is willing to say just about anything to get re-elected. She also had the audacity to complain about Dick DeVos’ financial disclosure statement when Michigan’s Common Cause called it the most extensive financial disclosure of any candidate for public office…ever.
While at the same time the Granholm has funneled MILLIONS of special interest, corporate dollars into a super secret Partnership for Progress slush fund, which she refuses to report which companies and lobbyist gave her $25,0000 contributions, what they got in return and what she did with the money.
The bottom line is Dick DeVos did what he had to do in this debate. He took on one of the nations most gifted Democrat politicians, stood his ground, stayed on message, didn’t make any mistakes and kept the Governor from hitting him with any punches.
Press coverage last night and this morning has been fair, balanced and stressed the fact that jobs and the economy where the main issues…our issues!!!
Pundits usually say no one really wins a debate, the question is who lost. Given the political realities, given the issues and given the expectations…Dick DeVos came out the clear winner!!! Onward…
