It’s a harmful, often laughfi lled cat and mouse game that Michigan governors have played with the political press in our town over the years but never before has it crescendoed to where we are today. If you combine all the national coverage with what the news hounds around here are writing, speculation about a certain female governor for president is about as omnipresent in the media as the daily weather report.
And after that wobbly debate performance by a certain Democratic president the other day, the name Gretchen Whitmer is logging even more media hits.
To which she says? Nada. Zippo. Zero. Get lost. Nothing.
Oh sure she issued the perfunctory news release after the debate. It obviously ignored Mr. Biden’s “performance” such as it was and focused on punching away at the other guy on the stage in Atlanta. And if you expected her to comment on all the chatter about her moving into the White House, please reread the paragraph one up from here.
She’s off the grid on this one because the last thing she wants to do is encourage it which only serves to hurt her pal Mr. Biden even more. Plus, truth be known, when her name was in play for vice president in 2020, she confessed there was no urgency to stop the stories because it was good for Michigan with all the attention to the state.
Could the same thinking be at play this time around when the stakes are so much higher?
So what is a poor schlub political scribe to do when the subject of the story is nursing a severe case of lock-jaw?
What you do is you go back to what is on the record from years ago when she actually was forced into conceding two signifi cant stories for some hint of what might happen now.
The first one in December of 2020, came after months of saying she did not want to be vice president and wanted to stay in her home state with family.
But then, after she was on the short list for the second slot on the ticket with Mr. B., she finally confessed, “if he called and he offered it and said I want you to be my partner, I would have said yes.”
So obviously her thinking changed which leads one to ponder could the same thing happen over her second big reveal in December of 2022.
“I’m not running for president in 2024. Period.”
“Do you mean it?” was the follow up.
“Yes,” was the straight-forward and note worthy confirmer.
Let’s be fair here. Back in the winter of 2022, the political climate was ugly but it was never this bad and if the Dems are correct the very heart and soul of the Democracy is at risk if you know who returns to power.
So Gretchen Esther Whitmer could with ease walk-back her statement about not running for president in 2024 but at this read, many would say the chances are not that hot.
As for her take on all this? You know, but to that paragraph above.
