Unfortunately, it won't be his inspiring and soaring oratory about hope and justice, etc., something that now seems like a distant memory, a TV show we used to enjoy.
It will be the depressing and stark fact that if he says anything meaningful about Michigan at all what he says will sound like a Governor Snyder campaign commercial: the "comeback" of Detroit through bankruptcy, the "comeback" of the auto industry, and the successes of education reform with a need, now, to reform higher education. Enjoy, though, the banter about Tom Izzo and MSU basketball.
To start over, one very often has to hit rock bottom and the President might just force this reality on state Democratic leadership.
Perhaps this visit -- that surely will provide fodder for future Gov. Snyder commercials (5 million more dollars worth at least!) -- will make it clear to Michigan Democrats that they, in fact, have to start over almost before they have begun rather than follow the lead of a President who assumes their loyalty.
Governor Snyder is vulnerable primarily on one issue in Michigan: education. In 2011, he set out to circumvent the Michigan Constitution and "unbundle" geographically defined school districts under the guise of education reform. He met with massive resistance from a coalition of teachers, parent advocates, and even fellow Republicans who did not want their schools or school districts destroyed, eliminated for the sake of indulging the idea that the "market" through "creative disruption" would improve schools.
Despite the resistance, he has never backed away from that effort and only put in abeyance -- until November 2014 -- the things he couldn't complete. What he has done already has set a course for slow, painful erosion of schools: 1) District unbundling 2) EAA expansion 3) de-professionalizing of teaching, etc.
November 2014 is thus about whether we should have public education as we know it or not.
I have been working on this for sometime and I don't know a serious, informed person who is not literally calculating the time public education has left, making personal and professional plans based on its ultimate demise in 4 or 5 years.
And my kids go to school in Bloomfield Hills.
But when the time came Michigan Democrats turned this critical and potentially energizing issue into a familiar debate about them begging for yearly funds and Republican stinginess. Business as usual. We spent on education; they don't. Here is this morning's offering: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140204/OPINION01/302040002/Column-Michigan-s-surplus-civics-lesson?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
Did they notice Gov. Snyder swatted away their whole campaign in January with a 1 year minimal investment in public education?
Public education is not just underfunded this year. It is being systematically destroyed. President Obama supports this effort. The values inscribed in public education are being dissipated.
That is the issue for Michigan Democrats. Listen to the President Friday, then, and get ready to start over.
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