If they awarded frequent flyer miles for the number of times Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has received large doses of national media attention, she could spend the rest of her three year term flying around the world.
About the only national media outlet that has not done a feature is Popular Mechanics and the way things are going for this media celebrity, it could be next.
Given all this national media hype, it was only natural to ask an obvious question when the governor sat down at the executive residence for her annual Michigan Public TV Evening with the Governor broadcast (wkar.org.)
Has anybody approached you about writing a book?
“Yes,” came the cryptic yet very revealing response.
And then she fills in the details. Turns out a “handful” of journalists who have covered her have suggested she pen a book on her life. She clearly is open to this and come to find it, there might be more than one book.
Hum. “Do you want to do it?” “At some point. At some point yeah. I feel like maybe there’s a short book to write maybe sooner and talk about different pieces of my philosophy.”
Interesting but the next line will cause an even greater political stir.
“Ultimately maybe a longer form book that comes later like maybe when I’m done being governor,” she opens the door to another obvious question.
When she is finished being gov. in 2026, that is only two years away from the next race for the White House.
Others have been at this point in their lives. They were leaving whatever gig they had and decided to run for president but first they fired off a “glowing” memoir on their lives as a nifty prelude to their eventual announcement.
Barack Obama did it. John McCain did it. So did Mitt Romney. Will Ms. Whitmer do the same? The governor was reminded that everybody does this and her possible book will certainly feed that national narrative that she will run in 2028.
“Yeah. Well other people write books too and don’t run for anything,” she tried to nip that story in the bud.
Examine the response carefully. All it is is a statement of fact. It is not a yes or no that she won’t do the same thing, which is precisely the way you want it. If you hope to feed the national news media beast that is more than eager to write reams about the Michigan governor as it relates to running for the White House, you never say never.
She was asked if she had a title?
“Do you have a title?” she playfully bounces the serve back.
“It’s obvious. “That Woman from Michigan.”
Now she laughs that signature Whitmer chuckle and returns another volley.
“Would you buy a copy?” The interviewer stumbles over the unexpected question.
Sensing a chance to score a match point she reflects, “You expect me to send you a copy?”
Not on your life. Excepting a freebie from any public official is frowned on in the news biz, so the reporter asserts, “I will buy your book.”
The question is, will anybody else?
And you already know the answer to that.
