Pete Hoekstra, the none-too-bright former congressman who lost in his run to be Michigan governor in 2010, won the Republican primary to win the right to face Sen. Debbie Stabenow in November. And the Worldnutdaily is helping promote his campaign by claiming that it represents a “conservative revolution” in Michigan.
Former Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra easily won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate this week. He now faces two-term Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The senator holds a double-digit lead according to two different polls, but Hoekstra says when voters understand how Stabenow has been a loyal follower and supporter of President Obama’s agenda – which Hoekstra says has been terrible for Michigan and the nation.
Good editing, don’t you think? When voters understand that, then what? The sentence just ends without a conclusion. Even if it was a coherent sentence, of course, the claim is absurd. Obama is going to win Michigan in November, and probably with relative ease, so trying to tie Stabenow to Obama is not likely to be an effective strategy.
The GOP nominee also takes aim at a common Obama narrative that his administration’s bailout and restructuring saved the U.S. auto industry. Hoekstra says the Obama approach will reap temporary benefits because of all of the money spent but he insists a free-market approach would have set up Detroit for much stronger growth in the long term.
“The way to get manufacturing forward in America is not by bailing them out, it’s giving them the tools so that they can actually compete,” said Hoekstra.
Ah yes, vague platitudes. What tools would those be, Pete? And how could the auto industry use those tools if they didn’t exist?
11 comments
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Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
August 15, 2012 at 9:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
… And those tools shall be:
1 (One) Screwdriver (Used)
1 (One) Hammer (Nearly New)
4 (Four) screws (Various Sizes)
1 (One) set of bootlaces (Pulling Up, Self, For The Use Of)
And all for a reasonabl…y high price and a low, low interest loan!*
*30% pa for the first 30 days, 1800% pcm thereafter. Secured on kidneys or family members. Offer void in Michigan.
Mr Ed
August 15, 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I can’t help think of the thousands of jobs that Obama prevent from being created by bailing out the auto industry. The state was looking to add dozens of case workers to the department of labor to handle the new unemployment claims. Detroit police were looking forward to increase staffing levels to cover domestic abuse and substance abuse calls. A Flint food bank had plans to double and maybe even triple but when GM emerged from bankruptcy so quickly those plans were scrapped. Ted Smith head of social services in Flint noted, “Obama just doesn’t understand my business [social work] when people have jobs making the next Chevy they don’t need us.”
d cwilson
August 15, 2012 at 10:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hoekstra’s “free market” approach isn’t so much as giving manufacturers the tools they need as it’s helping them move all of their tools (along with the rest of the factory) to China.
Doug Little
August 15, 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
WTF,
The bailout was the tool. It allowed the companies to stay solvent when they were restructuring and to pay all the outside contractors as well. Without it Michigan would have gone tits up in a big way.
gushinrich
August 15, 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I find it ironic that Hoekstra’s rivals in the primary were trying to portray him as being “no different” from Stabenow.
Larry
August 15, 2012 at 10:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Tools being
1) no taxes on the business
2) no taxes for the CEO and his staff
3) no environmental regulations
4) no OSHA regulations to protect the workers
UnknownEric
August 15, 2012 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Or better yet, tools being the people voting for him.
Yes, that was a double-entendre.
timgueguen
August 15, 2012 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Chances are the “tools to compete” and a “free market solution” would have been having the companies go bankrupt, be sold for pennies on the dollar of their value, and then resume production, minus all those pesky things like a living wage, health care plan etc. etc. You’d have a bunch of desperate people willing to work for 8 bucks an hour with no health plan, and the new ownership would reap the rewards of a greatly improved cost per vehicle.
oranje
August 15, 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
From his racist Super Bowl ad to this idiocy, I’m amazed that he can walk around during the day and remember that it’s “inhale-exhale” in that order. The only long-term growth in Detroit without the bailout would have been weeds. He’s an embarrassment to our state.
Pieter B, FCD
August 15, 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One of the most useful tools to allow American business to compete on the world market would be universal health care.
typecaster
August 15, 2012 at 3:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This particular race is a problem for me, mitigated only by the fact that Hoekstra hasn’t any real chance of winning. Hoekstra is a dangerous joke of a candidate, and I refuse to vote for Stabenow. She voted in favor of a flag-burning amendment, so she’s on record as thinking the First Amendment is a bad idea. She also voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act (one of twelve Democrats who did), so she’s on record as thinking that the Fourth through Eighth Amendments and Article One, Section 9 of the Constitution are bad ideas. This is a person that I don’t want anywhere near Senatorial powers.
Aside from that, I have no particularly strong opinion on the matter.