MI-GOV: Party regulars first dismissed Gretchen Whitmer because of her gender.

[RandySF]

The first Democrat to declare her gubernatorial candidacy, she was at first dismissed by party regulars who worried that a young, female candidate would reawaken the misogyny that bedeviled Granholm. But Whitmer persisted, and when better-known Democrats like U.S. Senator Gary Peters and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan resisted appeals to give up their own sinecures, she emerged as the most credible threat to challenge the Republicans' eight-year domination of Michigan government.



https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/07/22/michigan-governor-endorsement-whitmer-calley/806346002/

[Cha]

1. She Persisted! Best of Luck to

Gretchen Whitmer to make it to Gov of Michigan!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Granholm seems to have been an amazing Governor.

We (my now ex and I) flew to Detroit on August 15, 2003. The evening before there had been a major power blackout in that part of the country. Here's a map:


Our flight to Detroit took a long go-around, after being unable to land on the first approach. It was like being in a science fiction movie in which everyone has died, because there was almost no traffic on the roads, and it was crystal clear that most businesses were not open. We landed safely, got a rental car, and as we were driving to our hotel we listened to a news conference Governor Granholm was holding, in which she was detailing exactly what was being done to alleviate hardship, such as getting lots of bottles of water to nursing homes. It was truly awesome, listening to her, and how she had everything under control. Had she not been born in Canada she'd have been under serious consideration to run for President.

[RandySF]

3. I remember that blackout

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Yeah. It was the science-fictional aspect

of flying at a fairly low altitude, maybe 2,000 feet, for ten or fifteen minutes as we circled back to the airport. Almost no traffic. Clearly no fast food places open.

The terminal our Northwest flight was arriving at had power, but I believe the other terminal/terminals did not at that point. We got to the rental car place and they told us to just go out to where the cars were and pick out one. We tried to get one with a decent amount of gas, because they had not been able to refuel any cars since the night before. And we knew gas stations weren't open.

As we pulled up to the hotel, power was restored to that part of the metro area. But they hadn't been able to get much accomplished in terms of cleaning rooms or verifying reservations. When we checked in we were given a key for a room, but it hadn't been cleaned yet. We went back to the front desk, given another key, same problem. So a front desk person came with us and just started opening rooms until he found one that was clean and ready to go.

That evening, the hotel restaurant was giving away food, because they'd had to cancel some event because of the power outage. So we got a free dinner. We tipped well. And the bar did great business.

Everywhere we went those couple of days people were incredibly friendly and helpful. Fortunately the blackout didn't last very long, and help was gotten to people who needed it. We were merely mildly inconvenienced.

[kcr]

5. She is amazing

I have family in Michigan where I grew up, some of them conservative. It used to make me so mad and sad to hear how they trashed her with talking points they obviously picked up from the right wing media there.