Democratic and Republican strategists Donna Brazile and Tucker Eskew discussed the 2012 presidential campaign Wednesday night at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
It would be fantastic to see Brazile and Eskew do a 10:30 show, when they could work blue. The chemistry between them was fantastic, as was the substance of the conversation. It was like Crossfire if the average Crossfire hosts had been intelligent and witty. Usually, they possessed neither trait.
More interesting, however, was the audience straw poll following the discussion. Obama won with 71% of the vote. In a room full of Chamber of Commerce types that have, at both this year’s and last year’s conferences, responded to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder like stockholders cheering Jack Welch at a GE annual meeting.
“Mark Brewer told me this was the closest I would ever come to speaking at a Republican convention,” UAW President Bob King joked during his presentation at last year’s Mackinac. That pretty much sums it up.
Mitt Romney is the business guy from Michigan, and he lost (big) a crowd of business people from Michigan. Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah closed the session by jokingly thanking everyone for attending “this meeting of the Democratic National Committee.”
This isn’t a scientific poll and the sample size is small--a lot of people had already hit the bars--but, with this lot, those factors should have favored Romney.
And just as Obama wins the island, the latest numbers from Public Policy Polling shows the President is also winning Michigan 53-39. These results replicate PPP’s February Michigan survey, when Obama led 54-38 in Michigan.
The limited polling on the Michigan race has consistently shown Obama ahead so far, whereas the leader regularly flip-flopped in Michigan polling during the 2008 Obama-McCain and 2004 Bush-Kerry races.
This is supposed to be something of a battleground state, albeit one that leans slightly Democratic.
Now, no one should be so foolish as to assume as Michigan goes so goes the nation. It would be wrong to say as Michigan goes so goes Ohio.
But when you look at how the national state-by-state polling is going and you watch Obama win a straw poll by a nearly 3-to-1 margin on Romney’s home turf, you have to wonder if 2012 is shaping up to be a long campaign season for the GOP.
