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By RightMichigan.com Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | Hillary Clinton | Iowa | John Edwards | Michigan | POTUS — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Iowa's done.  What's next?  Michigan!  Yeah, yeah, I know.  New Hampshire is actually next, technically.  And you've got to figure in Wyoming and South Carolina.  So maybe we're not "next" but in only eleven days Michigan voters will head to the polls to vote for their choice to be the next leader of the free world.  

Some candidates will come visit us in the next week and a half.  Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain already have appearances scheduled in various parts of Michigan.  Mike Huckabee will almost certainly make a visit or two while he's still riding high on that Iowa momentum.  And on the Democrat side we're going to see lots of little Denny Kucinich!  

Sorry gals, no Oprah stumping for Obama in Michigan although Michigan did see Stedman working the crowds for Dick DeVos back in 2006 (for whatever that was worth).  And while I'm not too broken up about missing the chance to see O herself I am still a touch more than genuinely frustrated that an entire political party is treating Michigan like a national pariah.

If they're not swearing the State off and signing pledges not to step foot on our shores they're trying to bankrupt our biggest job providers with radical fuel economy standard hikes.  Things just don't make sense when you mix Democrats and Michigan.  Somehow Jennifer Granholm, the biggest protectionist in the world only eighteen months ago, finds herself able to endorse Iowa's "biggest loser," Hillary Clinton, despite her decades old championship of global free trade.  And somehow a political party which has explicitly stated that they don't care for a single Michigan vote (not even Chris Dodd who was actually on the ballot but dropped out after his performance in last night's caucuses) and has taken steps in Washington DC to put the Big 3 out of business has no druthers about accepting 400 shiny new vehicles, free of charge, for their big convention out in Colorado.  (A big convention, again, that will be sans Michigan delegates.)

GM made that announcement yesterday.  The Detroit News reports:

The move comes at a time when Detroit's Big Three automakers have had rocky relations with Democrats and could well end up with a presidential nominee who has blasted Detroit automakers on the campaign trail.

But GM will have a smaller presence at the conventions, like many U.S. corporations in face of new ethics rules passed by Congress. GM won't hold any receptions for lawmakers as it has during previous conventions, GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

GM has provided vehicles to both the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions since 1980. In prior years, GM has said providing 400 vehicles amounted to a $1 million "in-kind contribution" to both political parties.

If they get Obama, Clinton or Edwards (and they will) then certainly they'll have a candidate who's taken them to the woodshed at one time or another.  Obama's speech to the Detroit Economic Club last year, right in Big Auto's backyard, was so scorching and poorly received that it led some in the press to question his seriousness as a candidate, though it should be said, those feelings weren't shared outside of Michigan where other states gladly accept Detroit as a national whipping boy.

Only makes sense then that GM would continue the long tradition of giving their cars away to the high and the mighty in an effort to avoid their wrath.  They can literally use all the help they can get.  They were the recipient of devastating news late yesterday when sales numbers for 2006 emerged showing they've been overtaken as the world's largest auto producer.  According to the Associated Press:

General Motors Corp. could be knocked from its longtime perch as the world's biggest automaker, if production estimates from Toyota Motor Corp. for 2007 hold true.

GM said Thursday it made 9.284 million vehicles worldwide last year, roughly 226,000 fewer than Toyota's 2007 production estimate of 9.51 million.

Toyota expects to have final numbers later in January, but issued the 2007 estimate on Dec. 25 with just six days left in the year.

This news hits the same day we hear that Michigan's unemployment rate hits a nation-worst 7.4% fueled in large part by the continued decline of Detroit's auto industry.  And that number isn't going to get any better any time soon, what with Chrysler announcing their layoff plans for February and March.  Plans that ax over 2,000 Michigan jobs alone.

Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit is to lose about 900 jobs, and Toledo North Assembly Plant is to lose about 780 in early February...

Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is to lose its 1,140-person second shift in mid-March. The plant makes the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger.

In other words, Detroit's still hurting.  The Big 3 are still hurting.  Michigan is still hurting.  I watched a lot of speeches yesterday night after the votes were counted and the tallies announced.  I heard a lot of really nice things coming from John Edwards and Barack Obama (Clinton just looked beaten and well worn and sounded as shrill as ever).  They care.  It's a new America.  They're all about people and a new tomorrow.  And they're going to carry on their message to the rest of the United States.  Minus Michigan.