157 Days until Election Day
May 31, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
OBAMA COMING TO TROY...NOT DETROIT...not only does Obama boycott Michigan and bash the domestic auto industry...now he ignores our largest city where his message of "hope" is much needed. Is he ready to be president? Is he taking us for granted?
STEVE FORBES...in Michigan for Chief Justice Cliff Taylor. The campaign did a three city tour yesterday through Grand Rapids (Dick & Betsy DeVos), Jackson (William Deary) and Ann Arbor (Ron & Eileen Weiser and David & Jan Brandon ) as he prepared for the fall election against an unnamed, supposed plaintiffs' trial lawyer.
DETROIT CHAMBER MACKINAC CONFERENCE...comes to an end with most believing there is much to be done. At the same time, many question if the leadership is there "now" to get it done. The greatest success of the conference...bringing so many of these issues into the public debate again.
WHAT WE DIDN'T TALK ABOUT...was about the structural and political reforms necessary to put Michigan back on track. But the "need" for "revenues" seemed to roll off of some may "non-taxpayer" representatives there.
TAMMY WYNETTE FANS FOR McCAIN...so while filling up with gas on the way out of Mackinaw City, I asked the gas station attendant who he was going to vote for. Without hesitation he said "John McCain"....and then added "I can never forgive Hillary Clinton, she should have never bad mouthed Tammy Wynette!"
MITCHELL INTERACTIVE...Michigan based political consulting and polling firm principal Steve Mitchell pens an interesting analysis and raises a question of what happened in North Carolina and what it could mean for the rest of the country.
SIGN ONLINE PETITION...DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW. PAY LESS...Newt Gingrich discusses the politician driven energy crisis where Democrats refuse to allow America to rid itself on its dependence on foreign oil and energy. Please sign Newt's petition and help drive this issue to the top of America's agenda. It's time to stand up and fight!
HOLD THE DATE...our Max Fisher National Leadership Award Dinner is set for June 25th in the metro Detroit area. Please hold the date...expecting a very special guest as we prepare for the fall election!
**********************************************************************
FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:
Check...out...our...online Articles of Interest.........News...you...can...use.........
************************************************************************
THE REST OF THE STORY:
No further commentary today.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
The followingstories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.
Response to Granholm address is moderate
Leaders complain of slow changes
BY DAWSON BELL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 31, 2008
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm showed few ill effects from recent surgery Friday as she spent 40 minutes onstage at the Grand Hotel asking Detroit-area business leaders for help in enacting policies she believes are needed to move the state forward.
Whether she'll get it remains to be seen.
A packed crowd of attendees at the Detroit Regional Chamber's conference listened intently to Granholm's sixth annual address, but responded moderately to her call to action.
Mayor loses step in privacy bid
Free Press can ask for more texts; judge rules those near whistle-blower trial key
BY JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 31, 2008
Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. ruled Friday that the Free Press can ask the City of Detroit for communications -- including e-mails and text messages -- between Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty from last August until the newspaper published some messages in January.
Colombo, ruling on motions in the newspaper's Freedom of Information Act suit against the city, also said the Free Press would have to get the documents through the city and could not ask for them directly from SkyTel, a Mississippi-based communications company that supplied the paging devices to the city.
The judge said that the time frame starting two weeks before a police whistle-blower trial began last summer would be the most relevant in helping determine whether Kilpatrick and Beatty attempted to coordinate their testimony at the trial.
Judge: Law bars me from ordering SkyTel to release mayor's messages
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A Wayne County judge says federal law prohibits him from ordering SkyTel Corp. to turn over Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text messages, but he may be able to order the city to get the messages and provide them to the court.
Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. also said he can order SkyTel to turn over other information that will help him determine whether he can order the city to turn over the text messages. The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are suing the city of Detroit under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act for all records related to the city's $8.4 million settlement of police whistle-blower suits in the fall of 2007.
"We have a crisis in the city of Detroit because the (city) council and the mayor are on different positions on this issue," Colombo said Friday. The judge said he will hold another hearing next Friday to deal with issues related to the newspapers' request to question Kilpatrick and other officials under oath.
Fate of Michigan's Democratic delegates to be decided today
By Chad Selweski
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
Michigan's Democratic convention delegates will be anxiously watching this morning as party leaders convene in Washington for a highly anticipated meeting to settle disputes over the Florida and Michigan delegations.
The Democrats' 30-member rules committee will determine if some or all of the 368 delegates from the two states will be seated at the national convention. Both states were sanctioned for moving their presidential primaries up to January, in violation of party rules.
The panel also will decide how Michigan delegates will be divided, since Sen. Barack Obama's name was not on the Jan. 15 ballot. The Illinois senator agreed not to participate because the primary was not recognized as valid by the national party.
Why Michigan Democrats must be seated
Carl Levin, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Ron Gettelfinger and Debbie Dingell
This morning in Washington, D.C., we will present the case for seating Michigan's delegates to the Democratic National Convention to the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee.
We have found that when the sequence of events that brought us to this position is known and understood, it affects people's opinion about a wise and fair outcome.
For many years, Michigan Democrats have sought to reform the system where in 9 out of 10 elections our party's nominee for president is selected by the handful of states that hold their primaries and caucuses first.
Our fight to open the process before the 2004 election led to the creation of a Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling. After a year of in-depth study, the commission concluded that there were "serious concerns that Iowa and New Hampshire are not fully reflective of the Democratic electorate or the national electorate generally -- and therefore do not place Democratic candidates before a representative range of voters in the critical early weeks of the process."
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Sen. Barack Obama will hold a town hall meeting at Troy High School on Monday, making his second Michigan visit in three weeks.
The meeting, which will focus on economic issues, will take place at 12:15 p.m. Monday at the school, 4777 Northfield Parkway in Troy.
Unlike this month's appearance in Warren, Monday's event will be open to the public -- but tickets are required. They can be picked up from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Oakland County Democratic Party's office, 515 S. Lafayette Ave., Royal Oak.
Leaders address conflicts about expansion on radio
BY KATHLEEN GRAY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 31, 2008
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Even as the Detroit Auto Dealers Association made clear that progress on a regional agreement for a Cobo Center expansion needs to come quickly, the elected leaders of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties and the City of Detroit gave little reason Friday to hope that it would.
In fact, the squabbling among the elected leaders -- known as the Big 4 -- during a radio broadcast left some in the audience at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference dismayed.
Expansion of floor space for product displays is critical to keeping the North American International Auto Show, the region's signature non-sports annual event, in Detroit.
Obama used party rules to foil Clinton
May 30 10:48 AM US/Eastern
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, rival Barack Obama planned for the long haul.
Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff researched congressional districts in states with primaries that were months away. What they found were opportunities to win delegates, even in states they would eventually lose.
Obama's campaign mastered some of the most arcane rules in politics, and then used them to foil a front-runner who seemed to have every advantage-money, fame and a husband who had essentially run the Democratic Party for eight years as president.
Running mates start to take center stage
Nancy Kruh
Whether Hillary Clinton will be Barack Obama's running mate has turned into its own subgenre of vice presidential nominee predictions. But aside from those musings, pundits are gamboling about a wide field of possibilities to round out both parties' tickets.
John McCain's get-together last weekend at his Arizona ranch with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former rival Mitt Romney has stirred a flurry of evaluations. But The Politico's Jonathan Martin cautions, "This troika should not be interpreted as anything resembling a 'short list.'" Other weekend guests included "Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman (who shouldn't be discounted from the running)," Martin notes. "And this is not the first time (the McCains) played host to political allies. In March, the guest list included such veep prospects as Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ."
What should factor into the Republican's decision? Imagining a McCain presidency, David Brooks foresees "a political culture threatening to split at the seams" with embittered Democrats and an "exhausted and divided" Republican party.
Obama Knocks McCain, Invokes McClellan
Posted by BLAKE DVORAK
In a speech scheduled to be delivered tonight at a rally in Montana, Obama will again call McCain's Iraq invitation "nothing more than a political stunt." In criticizing McCain over the war, Obama is also expected to invoke Scott McClellan's new book, according to excerpts of the speech:
"There are honest differences about how to move forward in Iraq, just like there were honest differences about whether or not we should go to war," Obama is supposed to say. "John McCain was for the invasion of Iraq; I opposed it. John McCain wants to continue George Bush's war in Iraq indefinitely; I want to end it. So there's going to be a clear choice for the American people this November."
"But that's not what John McCain's been talking about the last few days. He's been proposing a joint trip to Iraq that's nothing more than a political stunt. He's even been using it to raise a few dollars for his campaign. But it seems like Sen. McCain's a lot more interested in my travel plans than the facts, because yesterday -- in his continued effort to put the best light on a failed policy -- he stood up in Wisconsin and said, 'We have drawn down to pre-surge levels' in Iraq."
Paid for byMichigan Republican Party
Notauthorized by any candidate or candidate's committee
