My father has been retired since 1998 (see Dad, I told you I'd edit it!), and has lived in Arizona since 2000. That's the year which featured the end of the dot.com boom, and when public & private businesses were at their peak. No real wars to speak up, and an unprecedented budget surplus on state & federal levels.
We know too many positives are too good to be true, but this has been ridiculous in Michigan the past four years. I have voted for the minority party (in national terms) the past four elections, but I may end up voting the majority party this time in the governor's race. This is where my father doesn't know truthfully how bad the past six years have been in Michigan. He can hear about the issues, but hasn't experienced them like I have.
The current governor (Granholm) has been poison to job creation. Perhaps she didn't start the downward spiral, but most of the "loops" have surrounded her. I laugh at a campaign commercial directed against her, where she had the sound byte: "Wait five years... we'll really blow you away!" I give credit to the commercial editor for originality! And no, we can't wait five more years for this state to recover itself!
Now, you must know that I never used to vote along party lines. I always believed the best candidate should win, even if I wasn't that informed about the issues. At least that is what people tell you. The current president has ruined all that IMO, so I have been voting against his party lately.
But there are always exceptions to every rule. In this day & age, it really surprises me... but when I look at the Michigan economy (and alternately laugh or sob), and actually find that it was someone in my preferred party who hasn't improved things much, then sometimes you DO have to vote bi-partisan.
Note: I could do without the junk phone calls, though. Three calls from candidates I've never heard of? I used to hate when candidates would shove flyers at you trying to campaign on Election Day itself. Now that doesn't seem that intrusive!
