Granholm, Obama in Similar Boat

by Tim Skubick
February 5, 2010

As President Barack Obama ends his first year in office and Governor Jennifer Granholm enters her last, one is struck by the parallels.

First, the two are masterful at running for office. Second, both are severely challenged at running their respective governments.

A campaign is all about the candidate, and the candidate has almost total control over what is done. If somebody doesn’t perform, out he or she goes.

Ah, but if it were only that simple when governing. Obama and Granholm wish they had total control, but in the Congress there are 535 mini-presidents to contend with, and in Lansing the governor has never fully mastered getting 148 mini-governors to march to her tune.

Obama would never admit it, but his lack of experience probably cost him some victories this past year. To her credit, Gov. Granholm has conceded that her lack of hands-on know-how made her less effective.

Both the prez and the gov are highly competitive. And not wanting to lose in the legislative arena is a positive thing — but desire gets you only so far. Knowing the intricacies of crafting a deal is an art that can’t be mastered overnight.

For the president, he is a work in progress on that front. His recent foray into the lion’s den of the House GOP caucus is an indication that he gets it. Unfortunately for this governor, although she has scored a few successes, the take on her has always been, fairly or unfairly, that her staff has let her down, she lacked the John Engler-type power and savvy to get things done, and as she heads out the door she may run out of time to finish her agenda.

On the plus side, neither Obama nor Granholm is a quitter. In fact, the president said so in his State of the Union. The governor inferred it the other day when outlining some reforms by saying, “We are not going to miss the future” in Michigan.

That kind of drive serves them both very well, but that and $10 will get you an expensive cup of Joe. In the end, both need Republican votes to push their agenda, and that creates a political pushback from their own party.

Obama spent the first year in office fending off criticism from other Democrats almost as much as he did fending off GOP attacks.

Granholm is now in the same boat as she moves to include GOP blueprints for downsizing government. House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer was at the front of the line patting the Democratic governor on the head for adopting some 16 government reform ideas that he says the GOP wrote.

Even one Tea Party wag and the ultra-conservative Mackinac Center gave a shout out to the governor. Unheard of around here.

Noticeably absent were similar shouts from Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Mike Prusi.

And therein lies the dilemma of working a deal with the enemy. The moment you give ground to the other guy, the home team cries foul.

The trick for Obama and Granholm is to make sure they get something in return to keep that home team on their side. Obama is trying to do that with health care and has the time to git’er done. But the governor has yet to seal her “Grand Bargain” with concessions from the GOP, and her clock is ticking quickly with less than 330 days remaining.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s Senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972. He also covers the Capitol and politics for WLNS-TV6 in Lansing.

Tim Skubick Extra Extra… (A weekly bonus only for Dome readers)

Love Ya Babe
This is just a guess, but betya the part most folks will recall about the governor’s last State of the State will have very little to do with the policy stuff she laid out. What will stick are her ad-lib comments about her family.

It’s not the first time a governor has gone there.

Just before he left office, former Gov. John Engler came close to tears as he recounted the challenges his family faced during his 12-year tenure in the chief executive’s chair.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm topped him as she allowed a rare peak into her innermost feelings about how being governor impacted her loved ones.

“Jack, Ce Ce, Kate, Mom and Dad, and Dan’s mom, and Dan,” she began in a deviation from her written script.

The assembled House and Senate members could relate, as many of them face the same familial challenges.

The governor did not recount the countless hours that her job took her away from the family and how her husband, Dan, picked up the slack and made it work.

Even though she was tenacious about trying to be there for the girls’ basketball games and Jack’s lacrosse matches, there were times when they went on without her; when the call of duty superceded a mom’s natural desire to be there with them. It must have hurt.

She reflected about how she brought home each night all the burdens of a state that was in depression-like trouble. It hardly gave rise to the conversation starter, “How did it go at the office today, honey?”

Everyone around the dinner table knew.

So, for just a few moments she shared that emotion with the viewers and listeners. It underscores the tremendous personal commitment politicians at this level must make to do the job. The general public rarely dwells on that and is more likely to ask, “What have you done for me lately?”

And it rarely pauses to say “thank you.”

It was a touching moment, and as she spoke directly to her husband, First Gentleman Dan Mulhern, she gave more than a thank-you. It was Granholm being Granholm as she ended with, “I love ya, babe.”

And everyone rose in a thunderous standing O. It was a moment to remember and ponder long after the policy battle is over.

Early Out — Risky Stuff
One of the confounding elements of politics is that the practitioners oftentimes don’t learn from the mistakes of the past.

And at first blush it looked like the current governor was poised to repeat the grievous blunder of predecessor John Engler — when he willy-nilly offered seasoned state government workers a chance to leave government early. He dangled a fatter retirement check in front of thousands of state workers and they jumped at it faster than you can say, “Let’s move to Florida.”

It was the typical meat axe approach of Mr. Engler, who was most interested in reducing the size of government, no matter what.

But it did matter, and the “what” concerned the safety of little children.

What Mr. Engler either did not consider or refused to factor in, was the brain and experience drain the early out program created in an instant. Weary civil servants dashed for the door, leaving less experienced folks to mind the shop while even less experienced replacements were filtered into the system.

In the Human Services department alone, seasoned Child Protective Services workers, who investigate child abuse in families and foster homes, were gone, leaving the kids at risk. One of them even died, as you’ll recall from the Ricky Holland tragedy. He was murdered by his foster mom and dad, stuffed in a garbage bag and buried in a shallow grave miles away from his home.

Fast forward to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is eager to coax 7,000 state workers with 30 years of experience or more to leave now, too.

“I’m very worried about that,” confesses Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, who has thousands of civil servants in her East Lansing district. “Some folks may fall through the cracks,” she warned.

When the governor announced this new retirement incentive program last week, nothing was said about addressing the “Engler” problem noted above.

But come to find out, this governor did learn from those mistakes and claims to have safeguards in her program to prevent that from happening again. Her intent is to exchange a meat axe for a scalpel.

Good thing. The mother of three kids does not want a tragedy on her watch as she leaves office at the end of the year.