| Skubick this morning: Anyhow in Michigan insiders are buzzing about White House "concerns" about Michigan and Cherry, heir apparent to Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Some Democrats are worried Cherry can't win, and since the Obama folks want a Democratic governor in place for legislative redistricting in 2011 and an Obama re-election bid after that, they are watching very carefully and have been since last January.
This has already been shared with the Cherry team: The president is monitoring Michigan and somebody named Dillon has huddled with White House advisers who work for David Axlerod, who is sort of close to you-know-who.
The president knows who House Speaker Andy Dillon is. During a presidential sojourn to Macomb County that Dillon attended, the president walked up and said, "Hi, Andy." One of the rumors buzzing about here and there in the early days of this year was that Dillon was up as nominee as ambassador to the Vatican. There was semi-hard, semi-soft confirmation that it was true, and full confirmation of the fact that the rumor was making the rounds, but the Vatican is said to be very picky about who it'd accept as its ambassador. Dillon won't make a decision until the end of November. The speaker's family, minus the 15-year-old son, has signed off on him getting in, but he's not there yet. An informed guess suggests he has got fire in the belly issues, and most days he wakes up not wanting to run. He's also haunted by the stress within the Democratic party he would foster if he took on Cherry.
Ultimately, he'd help Cherry out, even if Cherry won. Cherry would be forced early on to separate himself from the governor and define himself for the electorate, and a Democratic electorate that would be a lot more forgiving for whatever sins are unmasked along the way. That is, Dillon doesn't need the bellyfire to actually campaign for governor, only the bellyfire to file paperwork for a half-assed run at the nomination. He's probably not going to win it anyway, considering his current relationship with liberals and progressives and organized labor, but he would do the Cherry people a tremendous favor by giving their guy an opportunity in the limelight away from the governor where he can be John Cherry, Flint-area political wonk, and not John Cherry, lieutenant governor for Jennifer Granholm. *--With apologies to responsible parties. |
