Lots of us play amateur poet from time to time, and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is no exception.
At a Democratic National Convention breakfast Tuesday in Philadelphia, the state's chief executive from 2003-11 earned a standing ovation from Michigan delegates by reading "an extended Seuss-ian rant about GOP nominee Donald Trump and threats posed by Republicanism," as Todd Spangler puts it in the Free Press.
She wrote the "Michigan Convention Ode," according to Spangler, who says "it veered somewhere between juvenilia and an Eminem lyric."
The ex-governor poses Tuesday "with one of my sheroes," Meryl Streep. (Facebook photo)
Here's most of it, as published by the paper (which has a video of the delivery):
There’s nothing more that a Democrat hates
Than Repubs in control in 31 states
So Republicanism has taken its toll
Here’s what Michigan got
With GOP control
They underfund infrastructure despite people’s gripes
No new roads or bridges or underground pipes
They’re lead poisoning children in the city of Flint
They’re slashing the reach of labor’s footprint
They won’t pay to retrain our jobless folks
They say that global warming is all a hoax
They’ve passed laws making it hard to vote
While trickle-down theory gets jammed down our throat
They’ve made massive cuts to the business tax
While funding for schools goes under the ax
We could care less that [Trump is] twice divorced
But we do care about the jobs he’s outsourced
He boasts he’ll bring back the jobs that were let go
But he manufactures in China and in Mexico
A scammer, a chisler, some have called Trump a thief
Do we want as our president a swindler-in-chief? . . ..
Building huge walls are part of his plans
It must all be related to the size of his hands
John Sellek (Facebook photo)
Granholm, who speaks from the podium Thursday night before Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech, posed backstage Tuesday with actress-activist Meryl Streep, a Tuesday night presenter.
In a kind of clean language rap battle, John Sellek, public affairs director for Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, tweets this unofficial Republican response from Lansing in the same style:
She ran our state
Folks ran for the gate before it was too late
Wants to be Hillary's running mate
But rhyming speeches is her fate
-- Alan Stamm
