DNC to MI dems. drop dead/ while McCain works MI for Nov. vote.

[cyclezealot]

Will we care about Michigan's electoral vote come November. All 17 votes. /McCain is already thinking of winning Mich for the Republicans in the Fall election . Are we.? McCain to start his Fall campaign in Michigan, before he even has his delegate count locked up.
$$$$.


McCain tries to win back Mich.
GOP front-runner to visit Ford factory, meet with Big 3; to make pitch at Troy fundraiser.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Arizona Sen. John McCain will tour a Ford factory in Michigan and meet with top officials of Detroit's Big Three automakers Thursday, the start of an effort to woo Michigan voters and show them he's committed to the domestic auto industry.

Before a fundraising dinner Thursday night, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, plans to tour Ford Motor Co.'s Wayne Stamping and Assembly plant, where the Dearborn automaker assembles the Ford Focus, said the candidate's spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan.

McCain also is expected to meet privately with Fritz Henderson, General Motors Corp.'s chief financial officer, as well as top executives for Ford and Chrysler LLC, although it couldn't be confirmed Monday who they would be. Buchanan said McCain had a number of meetings planned in Michigan, but declined to confirm the sit-down with auto executives.
McCain will spend about seven hours in Michigan, attending a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at the Somerset Inn in Troy on Thursday before flying to Indianapolis. The Oakland County event is expected to draw 500 in a state where GOP donors had largely favored former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race and last week endorsed McCain.

McCain lost Michigan's January primary to Romney by about 80,000 votes.

Until recently, most domestic auto executives had favored Romney, a Michigan native whose late father was chairman of American Motors Corp.

McCain, who since 2002 has supported tough vehicle fuel efficiency requirements and supports California's attempt to impose its own tough tailpipe emissions limits, hasn't been particularly close to automakers.

Auto plants have been a favored backdrop this election season. GOP presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Romney visited GM's Willow Run plant. Last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton visited GM plants in White Marsh, Md., and Lordstown, Ohio, while fellow Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama visited GM's assembly plant in Janesville, Wis.

During her Lordstown visit, Clinton criticized McCain for his comment made before the Michigan primary that many auto jobs "are not coming back."

"When Sen. McCain tells you that business as usual on trade is fine and tells neighboring Michigan workers we can't bring your manufacturing jobs back to the United States, they're sending a clear message aren't they?" she said.

Buchanan said McCain "was telling the people of Michigan the truth: Some of those jobs aren't coming back." But McCain is committed to seeing automakers succeed by embracing new technologies, she said. "Sometimes Sen. McCain has told people what they didn't want to hear."

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis said McCain's visit is to help unify the state GOP.

"He's reaching out to everyone, including the auto guys," Anuzis said, noting the automakers and McCain "aren't going to agree on every issue" but that he is a better choice than either Obama or Clinton.

McCain will visit the 3.7 million-square-foot Wayne plant, built in 1952. It employs 2,860. Ford invested $130 million to retool the plant to build the redesigned 2008 Ford Focus. The Focus gets up to 35 miles per gallon on the highway.

You can reach David Shepardson at [phone] or [e-mail]

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/POLITICS01/802190347/1022/POLITICS

[bluestateguy]

1. Michigan voters in his own party rejected him

He is Bush's heir apparent.

I suggest running an ad like this that the Michigan Democratic Party ran against Dick Devos in the Governor's race in 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8hVPebMas

[Gman]

2. I don't think MI is in any danger of going red

[cyclezealot]

4. Ever been to western Michigan

its as red as Arizona. The Mich US House delegation is like 10-5 Republican. The State Senate is Republican too.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Then you don't know our state.

MI went for McCain in 2000 in the GOP primary. He's got signs up everywhere and tons of fundraisers. He's doing quite well here. Kerry only won four counties in the state in 2004. That's it. He won Detroit, and with population numbers at the time, that was enough. We've been hemorraging population in the years since, however, and I'm not sure the demographics support just winning Detroit anymore but much, much more of the rest of the state.

The guy who started Blackwater is from here. So was Timothy McVeigh and the Michigan Militia. Most of our state is actually quite right-wing with even union members voting Republican much of the time.

Our state's dying economically. I've never seen it this bad. And we have the Republicans running on economic issues here with our people nowhere to be found?! McCain's campaign here is up and running and doing very well. Where are the Dems? How the hell am I supposed to get people to vote Dem with this kind of crap going on?!

[Gman]

14. I apparently don't

while sitting down here in Texas.

[TahitiNut]

15. Ha! The Democratic Party has given the finger to labor in Michigan.

I estimate the disenfranchisement of working class primary voters of Michigan will cost the Democrats about 5% in November.

[knitter4democracy]

16. You're probably right.

I keep telling everyone at the DNC I can grab that it's going to take serious work to win Michigan back. I don't know Florida, but I would think that they'd need to get to work there, too.

We need Dr. Dean up here going around and listening to people and apologizing for the mess that's blown up in our faces. He needs to stop blaming us grass-roots Dems, the regular rank-and-file, for what our dumb-ass party leadership did. They asked us, we told them no, and they did it anyway. Why were we punished? It's not like we have any power except for our votes.

[damntexdem]

3. This is stupidity hatched by the DNC.

Penalizing the voters of two states for the sins of the Dem officials of those states.

[cyclezealot]

5. The DNC needed to listen to MI Dems' concerns.

The most they should have penalized Mich dems from the get go; the same as the National RNC did Mich. Republicans. They cut the Republican delegation of Mich, Fla, Wyoming by fifty percent. Much more reasonable.

[madfloridian]

6. I alerted, this belong in GDP

[madfloridian]

7. Fl and MI were warned. They scoffed and did it their way.

If their delegates count toward a nominee we will leave the party.

[cyclezealot]

9. McCain fighting for MIch's Nov electoral vote

HOW do you figure? Does not make sense. Michigan goes GOP in NOv, that is related to Primary issues. Don't agree.

[SoCalDem]

8. If Michigan is that stupid, and votes for McCain..that's their problem

ANYONE who thinks that republicans need yet another opportunity to mess up, is seriously deluded.. I have more faith in the Michiganders :)

Michigan's beef over the "primary votes" will be resolved next time around... in '12

Hopefully by then we will have a more sensible approach.. like 6 regional primaries on a rotating basis, and NO "sooooper-pooooper-scooooper delegates"

[cyclezealot]

10. See how Obama feels about that if he does not get

Michigan's 17 electoral votes.

[cyclezealot]

11. Michigan's concerns have been ignored for two election

cycles . What's the hurry.

[knitter4democracy]

13. I don't. McCain's running as an outsider, a moderate.

You and I know he isn't anything of the sort, but people working their asses off just to survive, like most in this state are doing, only know what they read and hear in snippets. The media portrays him as the anti-Bush Republican, and that appeals to many here. Remember, he won here in 2000 in the MI primary. Many here have supported him ever since.

People here are screwed. The state's dying, and no one gives a crap. The Bush adminstration sure isn't helping, except to keep having huge fundraisers with the rich still living here, and the Dems walked away from us. Darn difficult to convince people to vote for a Dem when the ones running sure as hell didn't fight for the voters in this state.