Granholm Vs. Evil Devos Debate: Live Blogging

I'm going to live blog the debate that starts in a few short minutes. I'm sure most of you that are interested are within the viewing area, but for the few that are not, I will offer this service to you. (I'm such a swell guy, I know!)

Anyway, if you are in the Detroit area, the debate will be live on Fox 2, starting at 8pm EST. But stay tuned to LJ's Blogorific for pithy comments about the debate.

Update I: Well, the debate started by announcing that there are no rules. 1st question addresses lying in political commercials. And the mediator throws the question back to Granholm, by asking her if she's guilty? What's that shit about.

Granholm defends her trips to Japan and her meetings with Honda, which Devos' commercials lie and say she never did. Evil Devos!

Devos looks smug but shaky. I don't like that Granholm keeps repeating charges against her by Devos.

Devos gets caught in a technicality about which visit to Japan he was referring to concerning the lies in the ads. Devos continues to lie lie lie. It's pretty pathetic.


Update II: Devos refuses to answer the jobs stats question concerning how many jobs he shipped overseas. Granholm does a nice job of repeating that Devos was CEO of Amway a couple of times, then smiles kindly to the camera.

Devos breaks down unemloyment #'s in comparison to national #'s. Granholm responds back with her very aggressive job creation plan. She wants to invest in education and training to compete with other states and with other countries. She did a very good job answering this question. She touches on universal healthcare, and then makes reference to the 240,000 jobs lost on Governor Engler (R) in the 3 years prior to her taking control.

Granholm attacks Devos supported unfair free trade agreements. Question is bounced back to Devos about his support of NAFTA. He refuses to answer and then brings up Clinton being the "architect" of NAFTA.

Granholm brings up China trade policy and unequal tariffs. She lays out Devos' financial support of legislation supporting this unfair trade.

Devos is now arguing that increasing cigarette taxes has hurt business by lowering sales of cigarettes. Too funny!

Devos' eye keeps twitching all weird every so often. It's kind of scary. He won't answer questions on anything though. Surprise!


Update III: Granholm attacks Devos about lobbying and buying legislation. Fantastic. Amway being brought up along with Tom Delay. Donations to Republican in 1997 got Amway a 19 million dollar tax break for a million dollar donation. Devos denies it, but says he went to fight for Michigan jobs. Bull Shit! Devos does bring up "The Amway Caucus."

Granholm responds to lowered wages and her enactment of raising the state minimum wage. Also she talks about another tax break for families. She then goes into new fields for Michigan's job future which include alternative energies, life sciences, and others. Very hopeful tone and attitude through out so far.

Dick Devos fails to answer if the middle class is disappearing. He instead starts spewing stats about people leaving the state.

Granholm says Devos represents old solutions. That cutting taxes won't trickle down to the working folks. She comments on the Republican legislature blocking.

WTF? Is the governor indirectly responsible for the death of Ricky Holland? What kind of BS question is this? Come on Fox 2. You've got to be kidding me.


Update IV: Granholm responds to inflammatory question of wrongly released inmate. She said people were fired and the department was reorganized. The Fox 2 mediator continues to try to attack Granholm. It's obviously an ambush attempt here. Granholm maintains her composure and answers questions honestly.

Granholm moves on to Single Business Tax, and how it'll take away from programs that protect the public. Nicely done.

So far, the questions have been much more targeted against Granholm, but she answers the questions very well, and with great composure. She also mentions the huge deficits handed to her Gov. Engler.

Devos is asked about paying for SBT. He of course ducks the question. He talks about Granholm blaming Washington and others. He now says he says he has an SBT replacement tax. He wants to tax income higher. Did you get that. He wants to raise your taxes to give business a tax break. Amazing.

Granholm says this is the first she's heard of his specific plan. Same here. Also, she mentions how he said he would tell us his plan after he gets elected. Granholm also mentions how Engler ran the show for 12 years here in Michigan, and they never tried to nix the SBT then.


Update V: Granholm brings up Devos' refusal to release income tax forms. Granholm brings up that certain $200 million investments in a senior home that had sexual abuse of senior citizens. Wow!

Devos refuses to address why he won't release tax info. He argues that he has released "current" financial information. When asked about nursing home abuse, he says he just found out about it.

Granholm asks do you own 12 million shares in that company, he says it's less then 1% of company. Interesting. This will need further investigating.

Now a question to Granholm about reparations, 10 commandments being displayed in the capitol. Granholm is being badgered by the questioner about her personal beliefs. WTF?

Devos finally asked about position on abortions and incest and rape. He refuses to answer the question. Granholm calls Devos' views on no exception for rape or incest extreme.

Stem cell research comes up next. Devos addresses his problems with embryonic stem cell research, and flogs how adult stem cell research is better. Granholm again says that Devos is "out of the mainstream." The debate finally moves away from jobs and attacking Granholm.

Devos' spouse comes up about influence on his job as Governor. He refuses to answer how important her influence will play. Granholm does a nice job of answering the question.

The surprise that Devos had for the viewing audience is that he ran 3 triathalon. Granholm's was that her husband was going to be a catholic priest, until he met her.

Closing Statements: Granholm addresses jobs and plans for the future. Short and sweet.

Devos discusses disappointment and jobs leaving the state. Proven jobs maker, he claims. He's applying for the job of Governor.

And that's it for the debate. I'll comment further shortly, after I get something to eat. But overall, Granholm owned this debate. Well done!

Update VI: Overall, I was very impressed with Governor Granholm's performance tonight. She stayed calm, cool and collective the entire time, even with those Fox 2 guys tried to badger her on issues or with the extremely pointed questions about her.

The evil Devos didn't do horrible. He didn't answer many questions, but he did an ok job of not answering questions. I always try to look back on the debate, and view it as an average person that doesn't follow politics all that much. Based on that, I really think Governor Granholm did a marvelous job tonight.

A couple of highlights of the debate that stood out to me where the $200 million investment into a nursing home that abused the elderly. That one seemed to have caught Devos of guard. I'm not even sure, based on his response to it, that he had any expectation of it coming up. That exchange was rather uncomfortable to watch, because you know Devos was holding back and downplaying it. Commenting on how it was a bad investment. But I thought this guy was a business genius.

The other highlight came with Devos' "out of the mainstream" views on abortion and stem cell research. I think that it really shed some light on how extreme this guy really is. Granholm did a fantastic job on calling him out on being extreme also.

Hands down, Governor Granholm won this debate. I look forward to the next two debates, but Granholm definitely won a few votes with tonight's showing.

Correction: It turns out the questioners where not Fox 2 guys. Tim Skubick, host of public TV's "Off the Record" program, and political reporter Charlie Cain of The Detroit News questioned the candidates.