How low can she go?

A poll came out yesterday that has Dick Devos leading Gov. Granholm 48-40. This builds on a 6 month trend of him moving ahead in the polls and her falling in the polls. It's really a shocking trend considering at one time Granholm was thought to be unbeatable. She has a winning personality, is a great speaker and the press loves her. Unfortunately for her, that is all she has going for her since she has almost no record of accomplishments to speak of. This combined with Devos spending millions of dollars already on TV has really made it a competitive race.

I was speaking with a member of her administration a few weeks ago and I asked her what the Governor planned to campaign on. She mentioned something about the environment and balancing the budget. Since most polls show the environment ranking just below making sure the sidewalks are plowed this will hardly be a winning issue for her. Balancing the budget sounds nice but less compelling when you learn that she has a constitutional obligation to balance it each year.

Even worse than having no record of achievement is that the current Governor has no real vision of what she wants to accomplish. Even those who hated Engler admit that he knew what he wanted and how to get things done. Granholm is the opposite. People like her but she has no discernible agenda or compass. In retrospect it is hard to see how she got elected in the first place. Her political skills are negligible and if anybody can remember something she promised during the first campaign I'd like to hear what it was. She ran on personality alone last time and that says something about our political system.

Devos has run an excellent campaign so far. He too is staying away from the details and instead is tapping into the anti-incumbent sentiment. There is a growing anxiety that government officials are out of touch and part of the problem and his campaign as an outsider who can fix the system resonates with a lot of people. It's a winning campaign strategy but I just hope he has a winning strategy on how to govern once he gets elected.

Despite the effectiveness of the Devos campaign, Granholm's real opponent continues to be the Michigan economy. Michigan remains mired in a economic quagmire despite the fact that other states are rebounding from the recession. If the state continues to lose jobs, it looks more and more likely that the Governor will lose her job.