Is McCain Trying to Lose Michigan?
RealClearPolitics
By Susan Demas
Say you’re running for president and dropping by the most economically ravaged state in the nation.
Your Democratic rivals are too busy butchering one another to campaign here, much less notice 7.2 percent unemployment, record foreclosures and skyrocketing demand at local food banks.
So naturally, you’d give a speech on child pornography and human trafficking around the world, right?
It’s not that John McCain’s 20-minute indictment of these heinous crimes at Oakland University on Wednesday wasn’t admirable.
But it was a speech you deliver outside the United Nations, not a few miles from Delphi world headquarters, which just emerged from bankruptcy after shuttering factories and slashing wages in half for many autoworkers.
In Michigan, it’s the economy, stupid.
What McCain should do now is aggressively court powerbrokers like Patterson, Bishop and U.S. Rep. Candice Miller to be his ambassadors in Southeast Michigan. And he should give his old friend Joe Schwarz a call and beg him to run the show again, since he’s about the only credible moderate voice left here who could woo votes away from Obama.
That’s just good politics if you’re serious about winning Michigan. Your move, McCain.
