George Weeks: Obama hopes to counter Romney

George Weeks

October 16, 2011

By George Weeks, Syndicated columnist ---- The Record Eagle Tue Feb 21, 2012, 01:22 PM EST

Not since George H.W. Bush's nearly 300,000-vote sweep of hapless Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988 has a Republican presidential nominee carried Michigan.

That's no guarantee of success for Barack Obama, who last week paid his ninth visit as president to the state where early polling suggests Michigan native Mitt Romney, ex-Massachusetts governor, has a good chance of carrying the state in 2012 if he is the Republican nominee.

Obama appeared with South Korea President Lee Myung-Bak at General Motors' Orion Township Plant to tout the two-nation trade agreement and trumpet that "one of the first decisions that I made as president was to save the U.S. auto industry from collapse."

"There were a lot of politicians who said it wasn't worth the time and wasn't worth the money. In fact there are some politicians who still say that. Well, they should come tell that to the workers here at Orion," he said.

Obama said that "two years ago, it looked like this plant was going to have to shut its doors. All these jobs would have been lost. The entire community would have been devastated.

"And the same was true for communities all across the Midwest. And I refused to let that happen.

"So we made a deal with the auto companies. We said if you're willing to retool and restructure, get more efficient, get better, get smarter, then we're going to invest in your future -- because we believe in American ingenuity.

"Most importantly, we believe in American workers. And today, I can stand here and say that the investment paid off. The hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been saved made it worth it."

Great news for Great Lakes

In Washington and on the presidential campaign trail, Republicans complain that the Environmental Protection Agency has overreached in regulating industry.

My complaint is that the federal government has not reached far enough in protecting the Great Lakes -- including dithering on blocking Asian carp from entering the lakes and not delivering on promised funding.

But EPA Administrator Elsa Jackson, in an Oct. 12 speech to environmental groups and officials as part of Great Lakes Week in Detroit, said six toxic areas in Michigan will get accelerated cleanup funding.

The sites are the St. Clair River northeast of Detroit; Deer Lake and the Manistique and St. Mary's rivers in the Upper Peninsula; White Lake in western Michigan; and River Raisin in southeast Michigan.

In opening remarks to the gathering, Lana Pollack, U.S. commissioner of the International Joint Commission (IJC), told the groups "there is no excuse for allowing degrading of the Great Lakes on our watch."

The IJC, a U.S.-Canadian agency that advises both nations on their shared waters, held its biennial Great Lakes conference during the meeting.

Traverse City attorney Jim Olson, representing the Flow for Water organization, said it and the Council of Canadians "submitted an historic joint request" for a future meeting with the IJC about using the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to assure that the shared waters "remain protected and free from significant pollution or affects on flows and levels."

McDowell's money machine

Democrat Gary McDowell, of Rudyard, who is seeking the 1st District seat held by U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, of Crystal Falls, last week reported raising $155,000 "in just two weeks" after announcing his candidacy.

McDowell, a hay farmer and former state representative, lost to Benishek in the 2010 congressional race.

Zack Knowling, McDowell's campaign manager, said 95 percent of contributions came from within the state, including $2,500 from the political action committee of Sen. Carl Levin, $2,000 from U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, and $500 from Laurie Stupak, wife of ex-U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee. Several labor unions also contributed.