Gretchen Whitmer Announces she is running for Democrat Nomination for Governor

[archfan]

She's like a Sarah Palin. I remember in 2012 when she said that every guy was just interested in her vagina. Imagine the tshirts that people would buy/wear if she was nominated. She lost all electibility with such foolish remarks. The Nasty Woman tshirts for Hillary would be considered GGG.

http://www.annarbor.com/news/verbal-...ortion-debate/

The article you linked to said that a different state rep, Lisa Brown, was the one that made the remark. And the remark was, “I’m flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but no means no,” in regards to stricter abortion regulations. That comment got her banned from speaking the next day. Whitmer was involved as minority leader reacting to the ban on speaking. It's interesting how these memories evolve.

[emu steve]

Do guys actually find Palin attractive? I don't get it. It was a big media theme, but I never heard anyone actually call her attractive. She looks like a fairly typical mid-American middle-aged lady [[as does Whitmer, for that matter).

Anyways, it has no relevance to their qualifications. Female candidates should be judged the same as male candidates.

Palin is a woman whom one may or may not find her attractive based on her persona.

I can't get past her persona. Period.

That is fair and not sexist. Judging a person on their personality be it Palin, Trump, Obama, Biden, Hillary, etc. is fair.

Matter of fact, personality, intellect, and experience are probably the most important characteristics of a candidate for public office.

[noise]

The article you linked to said that a different state rep, Lisa Brown, was the one that made the remark. And the remark was, “I’m flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but no means no,” in regards to stricter abortion regulations. That comment got her banned from speaking the next day. Whitmer was involved as minority leader reacting to the ban on speaking. It's interesting how these memories evolve.

This is how somebody like Trump gets elected.

[Don K]

This is how somebody like Trump gets elected.

Please elaborate. How does mentioning [[reasonably in my view) that Republican members of the legislature are obsessed with sex lead to Trump?

[Bham1982]

Please elaborate. How does mentioning [[reasonably in my view) that Republican members of the legislature are obsessed with sex lead to Trump?

It's that people are easily duped by fakenews, and rely on echo-chamber information gathering. Reality is largely irrelevant; expert opinion is disparaged, facts are "biased".

It's the same reason a majority of voters for Trump really believe that Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim agent and that America is going to hell because of immigrants, global trade and equal rights under the law, and can only be saved by a racist, lying reality show shyster. People invent a reality around their established worldview.

[Meddle]

I've seen some decent pictures of Caribou Barbie, but that doesn't change the fact that she's a horrible person under it all.

[Zozo]

People invent a reality around their established worldview.

True, but liberals have the most ignorant, uninformed world view. They are most likely to believe gender is a social construct, abortion is a human right, that the strong independent woman Two Penny Jenny was going to blow us away, and that Kwame Kilpatrick could turn Detroit around. And on and on. No group is more easily manipulated and lied to by fake news, fake intellectuals, and fake experts than liberals.

[southen]

True, but liberals have the most ignorant, uninformed world view. They are most likely to believe gender is a social construct, abortion is a human right, that the strong independent woman Two Penny Jenny was going to blow us away, and that Kwame Kilpatrick could turn Detroit around. And on and on. No group is more easily manipulated and lied to by fake news, fake intellectuals, and fake experts than liberals.

What group of people is it again who are retweeting Trump's garbage and outright lies? Quit projecting and try turning off Fox and Alex Jones...

[Baselinepunk]

"True, but liberals have the most ignorant, uninformed world view. They are most likely to believe gender is a social construct, abortion is a human right, that the strong independent woman Two Penny Jenny was going to blow us away, and that Kwame Kilpatrick could turn Detroit around. And on and on. No group is more easily manipulated and lied to by fake news, fake intellectuals, and fake experts than liberals."

Spoken like a true Golden Tower Republican.

[Bham1982]

True, but liberals have the most ignorant, uninformed world view.

OK, but has nothing to do with Trump. Opponents of Trump generally aren't "liberals", at least not in the way you're using the world [[people with far left viewpoints).

People with extremist viewpoints, on either political end, tend to be more alike than different. The people who tend to be most horrified re. Trump are mainstream Dems and Reps, not fringe viewpoints.

[Bigb23]

She doesn't look "all that" to me, kinda average. Now if she looked like Sofia Vergara, now that's different.

The Italian Parliament has it all over us in sexy - porn, rock, models. All we have is an egotistical, elderly club/hotel owner.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Or we could have had an equally elderly Hillary Clinton with very questionable governmental procedural activities, riding on the assumption of 'likability', political correctness and familial ties........

Ghastly! Hot DARN!!! When I think about how we ended up with Trump and Hillary as our front-runners? Ultimately ending up where we are. Well... I guess as they say 'it is what it is' or moreover, what we were given AS eh' 'CHOICE'.

However, as I've said else where one of the positive outcomes is that the black vote will never be ASSUMED by the democratic party again! Nope - stick a fork in that.

The presidential election brought about a great deal of 'change', indeed. With some assumptions blasted away. And I'm not necessarily talking about black people who voted for Trump either!

[CassTechGrad]

If the campaign message that Gretchen Whitmer or any other democrat tries to use is the same one that we hear from political establishment insiders like Nancy Pelosi or Elizabeth Warren, then I do not think that they will be successful in 2018.

Around two-thirds of the electorate consistently told pollsters that the country was moving in the wrong direction. Mr. Trump represented change. Millions of people in the nation’s interior ultimately decided that they didn’t have the luxury of obsessing over his personal shortcomings. They haven’t had a raise in a decade. College is no longer affordable. Health-care costs were supposed to come down, but premiums have risen. Mr. Trump, they decided, may be crude and unpolished in manner, but he also sounded like someone who could shake things up in Washington.

What mattered most to the left was Mr. Trump’s character flaws and it was inconceivable to them that any other voters would have different priorities. Race is the Democratic Party’s organizing principle. Group identity is a doctrine and group grievances are to be nurtured and exploited politically no matter the damage to the party’s political base.

[Wesley Mouch]

It's that people are easily duped by fakenews, and rely on echo-chamber information gathering. Reality is largely irrelevant; expert opinion is disparaged, facts are "biased".

It's the same reason a majority of voters for Trump really believe that Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim agent and that America is going to hell because of immigrants, global trade and equal rights under the law, and can only be saved by a racist, lying reality show shyster. People invent a reality around their established worldview.

Short version: 'People are stupid. I don't respect their opinions.'

The failure of you, both political parties, and the media to respect people who don't think like them is the proximate cause of Trump's election.

Its now been a couple months of listening to the whining of those who think there wasn't a logical case for Trump. That his election is proof of gullibility.

Of course there are the gullible. There are the stupid. Some do believe Obama's a Muslim agent. I know several Trump voters. A cop. A car mechanic. A security system repairman. Two Ford executives. A GM engineer. Not one thinks Obama's a Muslim agent.

As to Trump's 500 other failings... I think the overall opinion is that politics is a mud-pit covered in a layer of slime. Everyone insults everyone. Trump just figured out that he could toss slime better than anyone. And he did.

I'm hoping that his slime-tossing skills are an indication of better skills -- the only I most hope for is common sense. The mud-pit politics gives voters what they want. Trump just told Republican operatives to give up on killing the Congressional Ethics Office -- common sense. Let's hope there's a lot more of it.

[Zacha341]

Compelling points made CTG. I would add 'Class' to that admixture. Not that the repubs don't have their own organizing principals, they do, but 'Race and Class' is often pushed by the dem party organizational and campaign apparatus.

No need thinking only one side has an apparatus. Nope. But the wheels came off in general. I think the apparati [[smile) in fell to pieces for the repubs as well. Came apart during the campaign increasingly so they had no way to control, manage or fully get behind the kind of odious candidate Trump presented himself to be.

The garden variety repubs did not want a Trump at the helm, fully. Conservatives and moderates outside of the purist two-party narrative, were more keen to vote Trump or third party than anticipated I think. Otherwise Clinton would have won the electoral and even the popular vote would NOT have been as close as it is.

We shall see how Trump adapts, to who/ what the most, between the two parties.

As Janet Jackson sang: "Control!" it's all about who you owe your allegiance to and how they'll use that to control what you do, beyond what you promised.

Politically speaking that is.

And NO, I did not vote for Trump.

...Around two-thirds of the electorate consistently told pollsters that the country was moving in the wrong direction. Mr. Trump represented change. Millions of people in the nation’s interior ultimately decided that they didn’t have the luxury of obsessing over his personal shortcomings. They haven’t had a raise in a decade. College is no longer affordable. Health-care costs were supposed to come down, but premiums have risen. Mr. Trump, they decided, may be crude and unpolished in manner, but he also sounded like someone who could shake things up in Washington.

What mattered most to the left was Mr. Trump’s character flaws and it was inconceivable to them that any other voters would have different priorities. Race is the Democratic Party’s organizing principle. Group identity is a doctrine and group grievances are to be nurtured and exploited politically no matter the damage to the party’s political base.

[Bham1982]

Around two-thirds of the electorate consistently told pollsters that the country was moving in the wrong direction. Mr. Trump represented change.

Barack Obama is one of the most popular outgoing Presidents in modern American history, with very high approval ratings, so it isn't clear that people are unhappy and want change. Also, incumbent Senators/Reps were reelected in overwhelming numbers, further evidence of comfort with status quo. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 3 million votes, also indicating people are fine with a continuation of Obama's policies.

That said, Trump won, so we're going to have change, unfortunately. We currently have the best economy on earth, richest country on earth, huge drops in crime, near universal healthcare, caught and killed Bin Ladin, massive gains in social equality, respect of our allies and almost the entire planet, but apparently enough people want to change all this, go back to the 1940's and entrust the most powerful position on earth to an ignorant reality TV star. We are in for a world of hurt.

What mattered most to the left was Mr. Trump’s character flaws and it was inconceivable to them that any other voters would have different priorities.

Opposition to Trump has nothing to do with the "left". You're trying to paint some fantasy scenario where Trump is just a typical Republican candidate, with normal Republican policies, so liberals are his opposition. Mainstream conservative organizations were/are as horrified about Trump as more liberal-leaning organizations.

The WSJ has been as critical of Trump as the NY Times. The National Review has been as scathing as the New Yorker. Trump's policies are in violent opposition to both Republicans and Democrats, and his strongest detractors are from the mainstream of both parties.

Race is the Democratic Party’s organizing principle. Group identity is a doctrine and group grievances are to be nurtured and exploited politically no matter the damage to the party’s political base.

And here we have the real reason you're making such comments. You're a Trump voter, and voted based on his white nationalist platform. In your worldview Obama is a racist, Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group, white people are an oppressed, marginalized minority and the KKK are American patriots. We get it. Immigrants, blacks and gays are the boogeymen.

Back in the real world, all races voted for Hillary, and Trump voters were almost entirely white. Exit polling showed that Trump voters voted based on perceived racial grievance and bizarre racial worldviews, and Hillary voters did not. The response to this among Trump voters is the 2nd grade schoolyard response "I know you are but what am I". In Trumpland the people spewing awful racial bile aren't racist, it's actually the ones calling them out who are the racists. We've entered Bizarroland.

[Bham1982]

Short version: 'People are stupid. I don't respect their opinions.'

Actually, yes. Many people are stupid. And yes, I don't respect the opinions of many of my fellow Americans.

The idea that everyone's opinion is equally valid is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Apparently a Harvard PhD climatologist and a barely literate trailer park dweller should have equally weighted opinions re. climate change. If I have heart problems, the cardiologist's recommendations shouldn't carry more weight than those of my senile neighbor, or maybe the barista at my local Starbucks.

One of the biggest problems in U.S. is the fetishizing of stupid. People take pride in ignorance, lack of self-awareness, lack of knowledge of the world. Experts are disparaged. Education is for "libs" or "fags" or "wussies". PhDs are egghead losers. Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are considered normal mainstream entertainment. It's really sad.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Plato did say the masses were 'incurably' ignorant......!

But we need not be.

[Bham1982]

Of course there are the gullible. There are the stupid. Some do believe Obama's a Muslim agent. I know several Trump voters. A cop. A car mechanic. A security system repairman. Two Ford executives. A GM engineer. Not one thinks Obama's a Muslim agent.

Not some. Most. We have data indicating that most Trump supporters believe Obama is a Muslim agent. In fact two-thirds think Obama is Muslim:
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politic...k-obama-muslim

And it should be obvious that your personal anecdotes are irrelevant. The fact that your Aunt Mary voted for Trump and doesn't think Obama is a Muslim is completely besides the point. Anecdotes don't refute data [[which, again, is another illustration of the dumbing down of America- people seriously dispute data by citing anecdote).

Trump just told Republican operatives to give up on killing the Congressional Ethics Office -- common sense. Let's hope there's a lot more of it.

No, none of this is true.

Trump said he supports killing the Congressional Ethics Office [[which should be obvious, since he has been knee-deep in massive corruption his entire adult life, and clearly intends to use the Presidency as a massive kleptocracy, modeling himself after Putin).

He only told Congress to wait on killing the office. He said now is not the right time. I'm sure once he's in office and enriching himself at our expense, then Congress will remove the remaining ethics rules, and our U.S. kleptocracy will be complete.

[Baselinepunk]

"Around two-thirds of the electorate consistently told pollsters that the country was moving in the wrong direction. Mr. Trump represented change. Millions of people in the nation’s interior ultimately decided that they didn’t have the luxury of obsessing over his personal shortcomings. They haven’t had a raise in a decade. College is no longer affordable. Health-care costs were supposed to come down, but premiums have risen. Mr. Trump, they decided, may be crude and unpolished in manner, but he also sounded like someone who could shake things up in Washington."

And if any of those people in that poll reside in Michigan, then they only have themselves to blame for putting Dick Snyder and his fellow Golden Tower Republicans in office at the State and Federal levels. The "Do Nothing Republican" Congress that obstructed and tried to de-legit Obama very minute of the day was an anchor around the neck of this country for 6 full years. And to spite, Obama still brought this country back from the brink of economic Armageddon -- image where we would be if Golden Tower Republicans would have been more cooperative instead of being obsessively shit-faced with "Obama = Kenyan, Birther and Benghazi!!" ?

We were told, many times, that the Golden Tower Republican tax cuts to Michigan businesses was the silver bullet that would get jobs rolling back here. Nope, it was the Feds working with Big Auto that got this State back on its feet, some what at least.

We can blame politicians all we want. When it comes down to blame for where we are at now, I blame the people who voted for these cucks.

[Don K]

It's that people are easily duped by fakenews, and rely on echo-chamber information gathering. Reality is largely irrelevant; expert opinion is disparaged, facts are "biased".

It's the same reason a majority of voters for Trump really believe that Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim agent and that America is going to hell because of immigrants, global trade and equal rights under the law, and can only be saved by a racist, lying reality show shyster. People invent a reality around their established worldview.

Okay, point taken. No argument from me.

[Don K]

It seems to me the moral education of conservatives was somewhat, mmm, lacking, since they seem not to have learned the lesson that poisoning people is, y'know, bad and stuff. Given that, and given that I'd rather not see Michigan go down the same road as Brownback's Kansas or Jindal's Louisiana, I think the Republicans need to be kept away from power in MI for as long as possible, or at least as long as it takes to learn that free-market purism doesn't work for actual people who need to eat, drink, breathe, and otherwise go about the business of daily living. I fear that another four years of Rep rule in Michigan will make a sick joke of the "Pure Michigan" advertising tagline.

[Meddle]

I don't see many Hot or Not votes.

'Course somebody messed up the thread title, so ....

[Honky Tonk]

It seems to me the moral education of conservatives was somewhat, mmm, lacking, since they seem not to have learned the lesson that poisoning people is, y'know, bad and stuff. Given that, and given that I'd rather not see Michigan go down the same road as Brownback's Kansas or Jindal's Louisiana, I think the Republicans need to be kept away from power in MI for as long as possible, or at least as long as it takes to learn that free-market purism doesn't work for actual people who need to eat, drink, breathe, and otherwise go about the business of daily living. I fear that another four years of Rep rule in Michigan will make a sick joke of the "Pure Michigan" advertising tagline.

Jennifer Granholm, D, held the Governor's office from 2003 until the end of 2010. Roads, infrastructure, jobs, education, and everything else was right as rain and running smoothly in MI, no?

[Meddle]

Jennifer Granholm, D, held the Governor's office from 2003 until the end of 2010.

Granny wasn't no prize for sure. Things is, Government won't change until it gets back to being about serving the people and not the special interest groups and lining pockets.