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By RightMichigan.com Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | Fred Thompson | Hillary Clinton | Michigan | POTUS | Primary | Ron Paul — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com

Remember a couple of days ago when the Ivory Tower told everyone in the State that Republican Presidential candidates just plain weren't going to be campaigning in Michigan following Tuesday's New Hampshire primary?  Yeah, about that... the Detroit News reports this morning on a full day of Michigan campaigning for several candidates yesterday:

McCain and Romney hit the trail in Grand Rapids -- Romney after a morning fund-raising effort in Boston to shore up his campaign's finances. His top fund-raisers called supporters across the nation, and raised an estimated $5 million, including $1.5 million available for the primary and the rest limited to use if he wins the nomination...

McCain, meanwhile, made a pair of speeches to high-energy airport rallies, first in Grand Rapids and then in Waterford Township, playing up his plans to help jobless workers. To a crowd of several hundred at Oakland County International Airport, McCain said he was making no secret of the fact he supported higher auto fuel-mileage standards, opposed by many Michigan voters.

I guess that just goes to show that just because they actually show up doesn't mean we have to like everything they say.  I'd love to find a candidate who will unequivocally stand up for Detroit's automakers and the free market and understand that if folks want fuel efficient cars they'll buy fuel efficient cars.  Incentivize, don't penalize.  But alas, that's a message lost on the whole of the Democrat field and, apparently, John McCain.

And speaking of that Democrat field, no, they're still not bothering to show up, though the campaign to carry the State for "Uncommitted" kicked off in Detroit yesterday with a Statewide launch as early as today.  And when I say kicked off, I mean that in the sense of a full-on offensive.  We're talking radio ads, earned media, appearances by powerful Michigan Democrats... the works.

The Tower reports:

Detroiters for Uncommitted Voters, a group of mostly Obama supporters, wants to make sure that people vote in the Democratic primary Tuesday, even if their candidate isn't on the ballot.

"We really want to educate people on what they should do," said Edna Bell, a former Wayne County commissioner. "If Michigan voters want change, the uncommitted vote is their way to make their voices heard."

It's presumed that most uncommitted delegates will favor Obama or Edwards, but once at the convention they can support any candidate in contention for the Democratic nomination.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers and his wife, Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, will begin airing radio ads this week urging voters to cast their ballots for uncommitted.

And about that convention... we've heard this entire time that the Democrat candidates took their names off the ballot and flipped Michigan voters the bird with both hands because the DNC promised they wouldn't seat our delegates.  Bull...oney Sandwiches.  Similar threats were made by the RNC and each of the candidates, instead of bowing to the will of fat cats in smoke filled cloakrooms on Capitol Hill, told Michigan voters that they would fight to ensure every single delegate was seated.

The Democrats could have done the same thing, but if you keep reading that news article you'll find that not every high ranking Michigan Dem even thinks a fight will be necessary:

(Michigan Senator Carl) Levin said it's unimaginable that the convention would deny seats to delegates from such large, politically important states as Florida and Michigan.

"Why would any convention say we're not going to seat delegates from two critical states in order to protect the privileged position of New Hampshire and Iowa?" Levin said. "Why would a convention do anything to self-destruct?"

They wouldn't and they won't.  Plain and simple.  So now the question before Democrat voters is this: Hillary or NOT HILLARY!  And with the Barackstar Express picking up steam and chugging along nicely, the Governor's got to be feeling a little hot under the pant-suit collar.

Here's hoping she doesn't react to the stress by lashing out at General Motors after the big numbers that just broke in the Associated Press:

Shanghai General Motors Corp., GM's joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., sold 479,427 vehicles last year, up 17 percent from a year earlier, the company said.

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., the company's mini-vehicle joint venture in China with SAIC and Wuling Automobile Co., saw sales climb 20 percent to 548,945 units.

Want to know a dirty little secret?  To sell products in China you have to make them in China.  In other words (in the Governor's words, if you will), Michigan based General Motors sent all of those Michigan jobs to China.  All of those union jobs exported.  Jobs killed by NAFTA.  

How dare they?  How could they?!  Shame and eternal shame.

Oh, my bad.  I forgot.  Jennifer Granholm LOVES free trade in 2008, is attempting to deliver Michigan for the biggest NAFTA proponent in the entire field of Democrats and no longer has a problem with jobs being "sent on a slow boat to China."  Still, I've got my eyes fixed attentively on both my email box, waiting for the press release from Mark Brewer ripping GM a new one for outsourcing Michigan jobs, and the regressisphere, waiting for the YouTube videos and piss-and-vinegar articles about how the auto company is putting Michigan families on the street.   Still not a peep out of any of them, though.

Funny how "principle" and "conviction" seem to appear and disappear with the political seasons.