Granholm speaks at Dem convention

By Armstrong Williams - 09/05/12 09:55 AM ET

The Democratic National Convention is working hard to convince Americans that the party’s failed policies worked.

The week after the successful Republican National Convention that trumpeted personal fortitude and the American Dream, the Democrats have set the stage by parading around collectivist policies that have failed the American people.

As we saw on the Sunday talk shows this week, the Democrats have been working hard, with limited success, to defend the past four years of Obama’s presidency. Since defending President Obama’s record is such an uphill, but necessary, battle, I was surprised to see that the Democrats have another casualty of collectivist policies, Jennifer Granholm, who was a convention speaker on Tuesday.

For those of you who do not know, Jennifer Granholm is the former governor of Michigan whose Michigan Business Tax, also known as MBT, paved the way for the Michigan unemployment to reach 14.2 percent in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest tax increase in Michigan history, at $1.4 billion, the MBT was pitched to the people of Michigan as a way to improve education, public works, job retraining and corporate subsidies. What it did instead was drive business and residents away from Michigan by raising personal income tax and add a 22 percent surcharge to the business tax.

Granholm’s tax was received with such overwhelming objection that Michigan Republicans were able to sweep both chambers of the Legislature and retake the governorship in the 2010 elections — all in a state that usually leans blue and has not had a Republican presidential candidate win since H.W. Bush in ’88.

After four years of President Obama’s failed stimulus, egregious healthcare law and job-killing big-government policies, the Democrats have an uphill battle trying to convince Americans that they know how to fix our national woes. Selecting Granholm to speak at the convention does nothing but bring up memories of failed big-government policies while making this election harder for Obama. So why would the convention committee select Granholm? Maybe she represents the best of what they believe and will continue to advocate.