The Ham Hock of Liberty

Monday, July 31, 2006

Alive, mostly

I've mostly recovered from the Michigan bar exam. This is the second state whose exam I've taken, and there won't be a third. Even having done it once before, it's a grueling, unpleasant endurance test. That it takes almost 4 months to get the results is the insult added to the injury. Fortunately, I think it went alright and I don't plan to lose much sleep over it.

Now that it's over, I can get back to watching the Connecticut primary, along with the Michigan governor's race. I realize that Jennifer Granholm is not particularly popular in Michigan, but how Dick DeVos has managed to avoid fallout from his job-outsourcing history is a minor political miracle. Of all the states where having a track record of shipping jobs away should be political suicide, Michigan is it. Whether or not the free trade agreements of the last decade have been good for the country, they have not been good for this state. Here in the western end of things, vacant factories are within stones' throws of each other, and many of the remaining factories are operating under constant rumors of closure, as whatever they're producing gets moved to places that don't place quite as much stock in minimum wages, collective bargaining, workplace safety, or health benefits. Seeing the effects of industry emigration first-hand is sobering, to put it euphemistically. And yet, a man who has done the same thing with Amway is getting a lot of support. Whomever his advisors are...the Democrats need to hire them away, and kick Bob Shrum and Donna Brazile to the curb.

3 Comments:

  • Congrats on being done with it! I'm sure you aced it.

    What the hell happened to Granholm? It seems like yesterday I was reading about how she was a rising star in the Democratic party and what a shame she wasn't born in America so she couldn't run for president?

    By Blogger Eli, at 8:15 PM  

  • "What the hell happened to Granholm? It seems like yesterday I was reading about how she was a rising star in the Democratic party and what a shame she wasn't born in America so she couldn't run for president?"

    I haven't been in Michigan long enough to really understand Granholm's woes, but I gather it's a combination of the Michigan economy being hit particularly hard, and Granholm having no success in getting anything through the GOP-controlled state legislature. I suspect there's more to it than that, but I don't have enough familiarity with specific actions she's taken or tried to take.

    I do not like Dick DeVos; I think he's dangerous and will exacerbate just about every problem the state already has. However, I think he's spent his campaign money wisely. It isn't the volume of cash alone, but what he's done with it, that has gotten him to this point.

    By Blogger Nim, at 12:21 PM  

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