Next Monday is the first of several just a few debates between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos (R-Amway) and it's a good time to start, for a couple reasons.
According to the WSJ/Zogby poll released this week, Gov. Granholm is at 49.9% while DeVos is at 40.8%. As they say in politics, all you need is 50% plus one -- and J. Grho is inching closer and closer to that. It's the best lead she's had since the start of the year. That poll was mostly conducted after the "intelligent" design report was breaking, and might reflect some of that. I wouldn't be surprised if the next poll was even better -- that is to say, worse for him.
So, the first debate is Monday Oct 2 at 8pm Eastern. In Michigan it will be on MSU's WKAR, on public TV around the state and should be available to Fox affiliates. For those of us outside Michigan, keep an eye on C-SPAN, since they usually run big debates, often live but if not, certainly taped. If live, it'll also be on the web.
More information on the debates after the jump:
- Tuesday Oct 10, WOOD-TV and NBC affiliates. Panel format with questioners from WOOD, Detroit's WDIV, and the Detroit Free Press.
- On Thursday Oct 12 they will both be at Detroit's Economic Club, but there won't be any TV and it doesn't sound like it's an actual debate -- they'll just be giving speeches.
- Monday Oct 16, WXYZ in Detroit, Chuck Stokes moderating. This one can be seen on CBS and ABC affiliates around Michigan.
The expectations for DeVos SHOULD be high. He's been a front man all his life, on the doing motivational speaking for Amway (although most everyone who attended them were destined to live in a van down by the river). I believe he was also trained in debate, and has appeared with Gorbachev in public speaking situations. So he's an experienced pro, right? Hah. If you've seen his pathetic YouTube videos, you would never know it. For awhile he was doing "video blogs" supposedly "from the road" -- and they're nothing short of godawful. Truly, unintentional comedy.
And if you look at the videos uploaded by his team, you'll notice that commenting and rating has been disabled. Weak! That's a Dick DeVos government for you -- no feedback wanted.