What's the difference? One is telling the truth, the other is lying.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm took sharp verbal shots at Republican challenger Dick DeVos on Saturday, calling him "a CEO who cut jobs in Michigan to invest in Asia."
In speeches to the Michigan Democratic Party convention at Cobo Center in Detroit, Granholm and others displayed a campaign theme of class division, characterizing DeVos as a wealthy, archconservative ex-Amway executive and friend of President George W. Bush who has shipped jobs to China.
"I am fighting for the things that everyday people of Michigan want and need," Granholm said. "My opponent has spent his time and a considerable part of his fortune fighting for things that hurt our citizens."
"You may not have a lobbyist with a fancy suit. But you know what? You don't need one. You have me."- Granholm, quite possibly the best line of the day.
It's about time the Democrats started calling this what it is- a war on the middle class, a war on the poor. While the median CEO pay increased 25% in 2005 to $17.9 million, the average worker has not seen an increase in the past five years. Corporate profits are soaring, and nothing is "trickling down".
Class division? You bet it is.
Republicans act all offended if you use that term. Why? They are stealing you blind.
At about the same time at the state Republican convention in Novi, DeVos was criticizing Granholm, saying she has offered excuses instead of leadership as the Michigan economy has continued to falter. He said it's time to make fundamental changes to the way government does business.
"I like Gov. Granholm. She's a nice person and a gifted communicator," he said. "But you have to judge a governor not on what they say, but on ... what they get done."
Here is a big list of the things she has "got done" right here. And MEDC has a monster list of jobs created here.
Where is Dick's list? DeVos left Alticor/Amway in 2002. He had a lot of free time to "create jobs", didn't he? What did he "get done"?
*crickets chirping*
DeVos brought the audience to its feet Saturday with a call to fix low-performing public schools, saying Detroit's schools send "more kids to prison cells and welfare rolls than ... to college classes." He pledged to get more resources into classrooms.
Wonder how DeVos is going to get "more money into classrooms" when he just engineered a $2 billion cut to funding. And the quote about "welfare and prison"? More dog whistle words for the Right, and it's a stepping stone to his quest for vouchers.
Granholm's comments marked the first time she has publicly linked DeVos with Amway, the corporation for which he served as president in the 1990s when it laid off workers in Michigan and expanded its overseas business in China and Japan
Finally the Press casually admits that fact.
DeVos displayed his arrogance during his speech- "apparently making an assumption about the outcome of a race not yet decided", according to Rick Albin. If you are a Republican and Albin calls you out, you probably have stepped over the line.
(Channel 8 has the video clip at that link, if they move it try the video page.)
The press is starting to draw the distinction between these two, and that is exactly what we need to have happen.
(A different version of this is cross-posted at Daily Kos.)