Obama’s Mediocre Speech; Granholm’s Wacko Performance

The Democrats worst fears came true last night. Bill Clinton gave a better speech than Barack Obama. You knew this was going to happen. Bubba hates Obama and did everything in his power to outshine him. Meanwhile Obama appears tired and worn out. His soaring rhetoric is no longer soaring. Crowd reaction to him isn’t what it was 4 years ago. Interestingly former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm may have stolen the night with her bizarre speech. In Granholm we can see everything that is wrong with Obama’s policies and perhaps what is right in Romney’s. By stealing the show, Granholm unintentionally brought attention to her failed job as Governor in Michigan.

Obama’s speech is being panned as pedestrian and overconfident from the left. Obama offered few if any specifics about his plans for a second term. He spent most of his time blaming Bush, without actually naming him. We’ve heard it all before from this President, at what point does he think the public will stop listening? The problem is that Obama thinks the public is listening but are being manipulated by dastardly Republicans and their lies. He’s really discounting the public’s ability to see that we have a $16 trillion debt, up over $5 trillion since Obama took office. He acts as though we can’t see the 23 million unemployed or the lack of new jobs, only a net gain of 300,000 since Obama took office. The public has noticed that this is the slowest economic recovery since WWII. The public isn’t stupid, but Obama thinks we are.

Which brings us back to Jennifer Granholm. She led Michigan to a one state recession when she was Governor. She increased taxes, refused to revamp Michigan’s oppressive business tax and spent like a drunken sailor until Michigan’s Constitution (which requires a balanced budget) forced her to make some paltry cuts. Once out of the way, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has led a recovery by revamping the business tax and cutting spending. Michigan’s economy is on the upswing, our manufacturing base has the tools it needs to grow.

The parallel between Granholm and Snyder and Obama and Romney is pretty clear. Neither Snyder or Romney is perfect, I have a particular dislike for Rick Snyder. But their policies will bring about a real economic recovery. They’ll fix the mess that the Democrats have made. By acting like a wild Canadian (Granholm was born in Canada) Granholm has brought upon herself and Obama a very negative comparison. Democrats claim to fix messes but in reality they make them worse. It’s up to tough economy minded Republicans to really clean up the mess.

The Democratic Convention won’t bring about any serious bump for Obama. Let’s face it, no one is watching this stuff anymore. Sure, we political junkies tune in and so do hardcore members of whichever party is holding its convention. But polling shows that less than 20% of independent voters tune in. With so few tuning in, there won’t be any significant polling changes. The question is whether the public will tune into the debates, which you have to think many will. The debates are the next big opportunity for the candidates to increase their odds of winning. How those play out is anyone’s guess. But if Obama performs at the debates like he did last night, he leaves a very wide window open for Romney.