by Tom Shields
October 16, 2008

It is just three weeks to go before ACORN — err America — goes to the polls to select a new president, Congress and a host of state officials. With so much to talk about, what follows are some quick observations about Campaign 2008.

Where’s Carl?
You may be surprised to know that there is an actual election for U.S. Senator going on in Michigan.

Three weeks out and there are no Levin commercials or mailings, not a single sign or bumper sticker to be seen. No speeches. No whirlwind tours. No nothing. In essence, no Carl.

I suspect that with everyone gunning for anyone from Wall Street and K Street, Carl is smartly staying out of the line of fire. He wants to make sure that the change Obama is talking about doesn’t include sweeping him out with the rest. He’s got millions in the bank to spend. Yet Jack Hoogendyk has probably spent more on his YouTube ads than Carl has spent on his entire campaign.

Carl will probably come out of hiding long enough to make the Detroit Economic Club debate and put a few ads on the air.

But where have the media been on this race?

We have a 30-year incumbent, in the middle of a national economic meltdown, seeking a sixth term. And yet the only thing we have heard from Carl for the last nine months is his concern over finding hotel rooms in Denver for Michigan Democratic Convention delegates. It appears that the only way he is going to be held accountable is if Jack Hoogendyk wins the lottery in the next three weeks.

So Much for Planning
There is a reason that insurance companies don’t cover natural disasters. You can’t control them. No matter how much planning John McCain and the Republicans did, the outside factors they can’t control are killing them.

No matter how hard you try, it’s tough winning the presidency when the national economy is collapsing around you, and the guy sitting in the White House represents your party.

If McCain and Palin lose this election, pundits will spend a week or so debating how poorly their campaign was run. They shouldn’t forget that McCain/Palin were leading in swing states and the Electoral College vote the day before Lehman Brothers announced bankruptcy. We can argue that they didn’t handle it well. But the White House was there for them to win…or lose.

Has anyone seen the Michigan Recovery Plan?
With all the focus on national issues, is anyone paying attention to Michigan’s issues?

Michigan has been in a six-year single-state recession, and as yet it appears that no one is engaging in any serious discussion about how we get ourselves out of this mess.

The rest of the country just joined our economic quicksand box in the last six months. When there is a national recovery, what is Michigan going to do differently to make sure that we are a part of it?

On the day after the president announced the Wall Street bailout, Governor Granholm penned an op-ed asking for more money from Washington for a Michigan bailout. So…our economic recovery plan appears to be begging Washington, paying movie stars to visit here, and a windmill in every back yard. Great.

Bailouts aren’t going to fix the long-term problems of Wall Street any more than they are going to fix the problems on Main Street Michigan.

Hope
In a poll our firm conducted a few days before the Wall Street collapse, the Michigan electorate was at its lowest point of confidence than at any time in the past 30 years.

Eighty-eight percent of Michigan voters believe our state is on the wrong track. Seventy-seven percent believe our economy has worsened in the last year, and less than 25 percent expressed confidence that things will improve even a little in the next year. Only 38 percent approve of the job Granholm is doing — but she looks good compared to the 23 percent approval rating for the legislature.

The Michigan electorate has about given up hope that an economic recovery is imminent. They are willing to accept change — just for the sake of change — rather than the possibility of continuing the status quo for even another two or four years.

Michigan is in desperate need of bold new leadership, and the party that offers it will be in the best shape to grab the reigns in 2010.

Tom Shields is founder and president of Marketing Resource Group, a Lansing-based political marketing and public relations firm. In the interest of full disclosure, MRG has done work for the Jack Hoogendyk campaign.