President Snyder...?

[Vic01]

For a guy who’s played very little on the national stage, Gov. Rick Snyder is picking up surprising looks as a possible Republican presidential contender.

Credit his so-far masterful handling of the Detroit bankruptcy for lifting the governor’s profile. Lately, every time Snyder’s name is mentioned in the national media, it’s followed by the words, “a potential candidate for president in 2016.”
Snyder has passively fueled the speculation by not denying an interest, while not confirming it either. And he’d have to be handicapped as a long shot if he did get in the race.
But a country weary of inept ideologues at its helm might rally to a pragmatic problem solver with a record of getting the job done in a state that was nearly as screwed up when he took over as the nation is today.

“Absolutely he’s a viable candidate,” says Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell. “He’s a Republican governor from a swing state — if he wins reelection this fall by eight or 10 points, he’ll be an attractive option.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz342O4vKhd

[Zacha341]

'Course there's joy at the thought of the continued dynasty: Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush... agh....

[emu steve]

For a guy who’s played very little on the national stage, Gov. Rick Snyder is picking up surprising looks as a possible Republican presidential contender.

Credit his so-far masterful handling of the Detroit bankruptcy for lifting the governor’s profile. Lately, every time Snyder’s name is mentioned in the national media, it’s followed by the words, “a potential candidate for president in 2016.”
Snyder has passively fueled the speculation by not denying an interest, while not confirming it either. And he’d have to be handicapped as a long shot if he did get in the race.
But a country weary of inept ideologues at its helm might rally to a pragmatic problem solver with a record of getting the job done in a state that was nearly as screwed up when he took over as the nation is today.

“Absolutely he’s a viable candidate,” says Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell. “He’s a Republican governor from a swing state — if he wins reelection this fall by eight or 10 points, he’ll be an attractive option.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz342O4vKhd

Dream on, Nolan [[Finley).

Last time I checked, Snyder pushed for Medicaid expansion in MI and is working toward the Detroit bankruptcy deal.

Snyder is absolutely disqualified by the far right base of the GOP.

To the rural, Tea Party folks in the GOP Detroit is the North American version of Moscow.

"Enid [[Oklahoma) forever, Detroit [[NYC, D.C., etc.) never..."

[[I'm picking on Enid as a small city in a beet red state, Oklahoma.)

[renf]

Some might consider Governor Snyder as a possible candidate for the Republicans in 2016. However, there is no much more of an organized effort to promote the candidacy of Detroiter
Ben Carson. His new and very popular book may be part of his own effort to raise his
profile as a possible candidate. The last Republican nominee was born and raised in Detroit.
It seems to me that it is unlikely that the Republicans will select Ben Carson but he has won
some straw polls. Frankly, I think Romney has a better chance of being nominated by the Republicans in 2016 than Ben Carson.

[Cliffy]

He will be eaten alive. Please run for president. He will face the real media, not the cupcake reporters we have around here.

[iheartthed]

Is this a joke?

[DetroitPlanner]

Heck I am a viable candidate too. To be viable you must be of a certain age and born here. Do I want it? Not a chance.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Is Nolan Finley dilusional about who votes in republican primaries?

[Dan Wesson]

He will be eaten alive. Please run for president. He will face the real media, not the cupcake reporters we have around here.

My first thoughts too.

He may or may not have dirt to be dug up by the mudslingers, but I wonder about his nice guy image. Can he swim with the sharks?

[Crumbled_pavement]

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

Heck I am a viable candidate too. To be viable you must be of a certain age and born here. Do I want it? Not a chance.

You heard it here first folks. Michigan resident DetroitPlanner is considering a run for president in 2016. DYes News tried to pin down a few of DetroitPlanner's views on important issues affecting the nation, but was unable to do so. While DYes news was unable to secure an interview with this potential candidate, the statement "Do I want it? Not a chance," is usually uttered by those who want to keep their political ambitions under their hat. We've come across information that DetroitPlanner has formed an exploratory committee and plans to visit Iowa, an early primary state, sometime this summer.

Stay tuned to DYes News for more breaking coverage of the 2016 Presidential race.

[Dan Wesson]

I would like to suggest a a running mate to DetroitPlanner's non candidacy Ron Paul. Although Ron Paul would bring much to the table in experience and non Washington insider allure. It would assuredly enhance DP's "Do I want it? Not a chance," stance.

[rb336]

I would like to suggest a a running mate to DetroitPlanner's non candidacy Ron Paul. Although Ron Paul would bring much to the table in experience and non Washington insider allure. It would assuredly enhance DP's "Do I want it? Not a chance," stance.

16 years = non-insider in what universe?

[rb336]

I will give Snyder some credit on the Detroit bankruptcy, but only because it is the ONLY EFM appointment he has gotten right. The others [[esp. Hamtramck's) have been either ineffective or outright disasters. I will also give him credit for understanding that Michigan's viability is non-existent without a strong Detroit.

[Wesley Mouch]

...Snyder is absolutely disqualified by the far right base of the GOP.

To the rural, Tea Party folks in the GOP Detroit is the North American version of Moscow.

"Enid [[Oklahoma) forever, Detroit [[NYC, D.C., etc.) never..."

...

If the Tea Party wing holds veto, then you are right. But there have been signs that the GOP is waking up to moderation.

In spite of the DY hate team's feelings, Snyder is actually quite moderate. He'd likely draw out fewer Occupy-inspired lemmings to the polls. Real liberals don't hate Snyder -- except labor where unions money supply is threatened by workers freedom of [[dis)association, aka RTW.

[313WX]

I will give Snyder some credit on the Detroit bankruptcy, but only because it is the ONLY EFM appointment he has gotten right. The others [[esp. Hamtramck's) have been either ineffective or outright disasters. I will also give him credit for understanding that Michigan's viability is non-existent without a strong Detroit.

Detroit's EM [[let's be clear with that, he's not an EFM) didn't "get it right."

Had Kevyn Orr only been able to use the same methods that other EMs used, which was raising taxes on Detroiters and reducing services even further, he would have failed just like the other EMs.

Instead, Kevyn Orr has been the only EM allowed to restructure a municipality's finances in Michigan through Federal Bankruptcy court, as he otherwise wouldn't have legally been able to cut retirement benefits.

Of course, what made Detroit different from the other cities is Lansing finally got a clue and now see the interest they have in saving the state's largest city:

-Outsiders see the entire state of Michigan as Detroit, like people see Chicago as the entire state of Illinois or NYC as the entire state of New York.

-They want to put a stop to the "Detroit creep" into the suburbs that's now happening [[see Eastpointe, Harper Woods, Southfield and Oak Park), as Detroit's problems are now going beyond its own borders.

-Detroit is the only area in the entire state of Michigan that can offer the big city feel that 48% of all Michigan college graduates continue to steadily move to Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia for. Unless their parents and grandparents in suburban Michigan want to continue to see their children and grandchildren leave them, they now realize they have to offer in Michigan what those cities offer to convince them to stay.

At the time, the only way Detroit could be saved from its downward spiral was by drastically improving services levels and reducing the cost to do business in Detroit, and that couldn't happen without restructuring the city's legacy costs which took up half of its budget [[given a 17% unemployment rate and 1/3 of the population living below poverty).

[rb336]

If the Tea Party wing holds veto, then you are right. But there have been signs that the GOP is waking up to moderation.

In spite of the DY hate team's feelings, Snyder is actually quite moderate. He'd likely draw out fewer Occupy-inspired lemmings to the polls. Real liberals don't hate Snyder -- except labor where unions money supply is threatened by workers freedom of [[dis)association, aka RTW.

He's moderate only when compared to the Republican party as a whole, which is still very far to the right of where it was even in Goldwater's day [[and has been since LONG before the tea party). He's far to the right of a true moderate like Milliken. Worse, he, like Hillary and most main-stream pols of either party, is a pure corporatist.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

If the Tea Party wing holds veto, then you are right. But there have been signs that the GOP is waking up to moderation.

In spite of the DY hate team's feelings, Snyder is actually quite moderate. He'd likely draw out fewer Occupy-inspired lemmings to the polls. Real liberals don't hate Snyder -- except labor where unions money supply is threatened by workers freedom of [[dis)association, aka RTW.

Every time the Nerd says he's for gay rights and equality and then backtracks in the same breath, he show's he's neither moderate nor a leader.

[EastsideAl]

He's moderate only when compared to the Republican party as a whole, which is still very far to the right of where it was even in Goldwater's day [[and has been since LONG before the tea party). He's far to the right of a true moderate like Milliken. Worse, he, like Hillary and most main-stream pols of either party, is a pure corporatist.

Exactly. Saying 'Snyder is not bad... for a Republican' is about the best I can do. It means that he is still way to the right of once-reasonable moderate 'good government' Republicans [[Milliken is a perfect example), but still not ideologically pure enough to be appealing to the Foxoid Tea Party and Christian Taliban types who turn out to vote in GOP primaries. Hell, just the act of trying to save Detroit, land of 'those crazy n's' who should be, I gather, walled off and left to rot, is probably enough to rule him out for much of that electorate.

Of course, that's not to say that the right handlers and focused media campaign couldn't 'remkae' him, Mitt Romney style [[and there are some similarities between Mitt and Ricky), to appeal to the retrograde right. But, much like Mitt, that would probably render him unelectable in front of the general electorate anyway.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

He would try to implement his Michigan politics on the rest of the country. No thank you. The only think he got right was the first step in getting Detroit back on firm ground, even though it has a long way to go to get turned around, it is a start in the right direction. His other policies, not so much.

[emu steve]

If the Tea Party wing holds veto, then you are right. But there have been signs that the GOP is waking up to moderation.

In spite of the DY hate team's feelings, Snyder is actually quite moderate. He'd likely draw out fewer Occupy-inspired lemmings to the polls. Real liberals don't hate Snyder -- except labor where unions money supply is threatened by workers freedom of [[dis)association, aka RTW.

I understand what you are saying but I think the GOP and the Tea Party have essentially merged so that the 'base' and the Tea Party are pretty close.

Someone essentially said the base has by and large been coopted by the Tea Party.

So instead of 'moderate' and 'Tea Party' wings of the GOP the two wings have essentially merged into an 'GOP establishment/Tea Party' party.

The Base '/' Tea Party would declare the gov as a RINO [[Republican In Name Only).

[iheartthed]

I will give Snyder some credit on the Detroit bankruptcy, but only because it is the ONLY EFM appointment he has gotten right. The others [[esp. Hamtramck's) have been either ineffective or outright disasters. I will also give him credit for understanding that Michigan's viability is non-existent without a strong Detroit.

A governor of a state whose largest city goes bankrupt is a non-starter for presidential aspirations. It will be a huge political liability for his party and I don't think the Republicans will want to stomach that risk this time around. They fare much better when they can say that Detroit is the democrats fault.

[Dan Wesson]

16 years = non-insider in what universe?

Ron Paul

16 years = experience

Ostracized by both sides of the aisle = outsider

[Wesley Mouch]

A governor of a state whose largest city goes bankrupt is a non-starter for presidential aspirations. It will be a huge political liability for his party and I don't think the Republicans will want to stomach that risk this time around. They fare much better when they can say that Detroit is the democrats fault.

I don't think the world sees Detroit and Michigan in the same light. Tainted light, to be sure.

To me the biggest reason Snyder has an opening is that he doesn't lead from his heart. Obama was proof that good intentions are not enough.

In the long-haul, I think Duggan is more interesting as presidential material. If Detroit rebounds in any meaningful way, his star will rise. And similar to Snyder, he's not really that tight to his party's line -- they're both more centrist and more like each other at the core. They both fight for their party's issues because they have to, not because they believe.

I think someone practical might be a dark horse. How about Snyder 2016, Duggan 2020.

[iheartthed]

I don't think the world sees Detroit and Michigan in the same light. Tainted light, to be sure.

They do. Bankrupt Detroit is just an extension of the Rust Belt environment that is Michigan. Once a brutal presidential campaign gets heated up it will not be hard at all to saddle Snyder with the political baggage of overseeing a downtrodden state with bankrupt cities that is having trouble reinventing itself.

[antongast]

To me the biggest reason Snyder has an opening is that he doesn't lead from his heart. Obama was proof that good intentions are not enough.

Good intentions are not enough because our political system was designed in fucking 1787 and it's finally reached the point where it is incapable of functioning in any meaningful sense. We can't have a system that has as many checks and balances and veto points as ours does, and also have political parties that are as disciplined and polarized as ours are. We need to either figure out a way to get back to the era of horse-trading and earmarking and "all politics is local" [[which will probably involve significant campaign finance reform, since the superPAC money and interest-group scorecards are a key tool for scaring potential dealmakers back into line) or else we need to design a system where winning an election confers the power to actually implement one's agenda with relatively few hindrances beyond the threat of being voted out next time.

"Centrism" isn't the answer. Pete Peterson and Mike Bloomberg and a whole bunch of other rich East Coast elites have been flogging that horse for years, and the problem with it is that there's no constituency for their agenda other than rich East Coast elites.