One More Thing about the Michigan Ninth

The best way to tell a brave plane from a foolish one is to step back and wait to see what the outcome is. So it goes with Lola's candidate, who is running in Michigan as a champion of the environment. I've watched enough West Wing to know that doing anything in my home state that runs contrary to the interests of the auto industry is a rank miscalculation. But the auto industry ain't what it used to be. The Big Three still have a ton of money, but they have fewer employees and less influence. Today Nancy Skinner unveiled her plan to channel oil subsidies into incentives for green technology. I haven't evaluated the plan, but as a left-winger and disgruntled driver, anything that reduces demand on oil sounds good to me.

What I really like is she's speaking positively about environmentalism. She's approaching it as a business opportunity rather than a reason for doom and gloom. An article Atlantic Monthly, says that environmental regulations that have been introduced over the last two decades have been both cheaper-than-expected and quite successful. It's an interesting claim and I'll leave it to the scientifically inclined to argue about it. I do know this: California allows hybrids in the carpool lanes no matter how many people are riding. But the state is running out of stickers. Maybe this explains the dire state of the auto industry, that the companies aren't investing in technology that people seem to want to buy. The demand is there. The supply, well, someone could probably make themselves a lot of money.

Lola expressed concern today that no media types seemed to pick up on their press release. She blamed, ironically, the annual Dream Cruise, a week-long festival where everyone in a 400-mile radius breaks out their classic car and drives really slowly up and down Woodward Ave. That might have been part of it. My feeling is that the political reporters don't think Skinner can win. But I think (or maybe want to think) those political reporters are wrong. Joe Knollenberg, Skinner's opponent, garnered just 65 percent of the vote in the GOP primary against a liberal Republican. This was without much Democratic crossover. That suggests the activists in Knollenberg's base aren't all that excited about him anymore. Also, this district went for Kerry, Gore and the Democratic governor. And this is one of the first times that Knollenberg hasn't run against a tomato can. Skinner doesn't have as much money, but if she can turn out the vote in Pontiac, the lone working-class enclave in that district, she can win. I just wanted to put that out there.