Granholm, Amway Dick work on debates

Granholm, DeVos to face off on TV Granholm, DeVos to face off on TV 3 debates are scheduled for next month BY DAWSON BELLFREE PRESS STAFF WRITER September 19, 2006 The first debate between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos is expected to be on Oct. 2. (April 2006 photo by KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP) Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Grand Rapids businessman Dick DeVos have agreed to appear in three televised debates in the first weeks of October, representatives of their campaigns said Monday. Details on the events in Grand Rapids, East Lansing and Southfield were still being finalized. But Chris DeWitt and John Truscott, spokesmen for Granholm and DeVos, respectively, shook hands and guaranteed a deal would be reached while taping another, campaign-related program Monday afternoon at WKAR-TV in East Lansing. The first debate is expected to be hosted by WKAR, the public TV station on the campus of Michigan State University, on Oct. 2. The others are at WOOD-TV (an NBC affiliate) in Grand Rapids on Oct. 10 and at WXYZ-TV (Channel 7, an ABC affiliate) in Southfield Oct. 16. A fourth joint appearance also has been scheduled at the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 12, but whether that event would be in debate format remained unclear. When Democrat Granholm faced Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus in 2002, the candidates appeared together only twice, and only once (in Grand Rapids) in a classic TV debate. Negotiations over the debates this year have been prickly in public. But political experts and campaign insiders agreed that this year, with voter anxiety high and doubts about both Granholm and DeVos, it is in the best interest of both candidates to have a higher-profile debate schedule. "The governor is a very good communicator," said Larry Owen, a Lansing lawyer, longtime activist and candidate for governor in the Democratic primary in 1998. "But she needs to show people she knows her stuff." "Dick DeVos says he's run a big business ... and been successful. He ought to be able to talk about that." Most of all, Owen said, voters want to see the candidates "going head-to-head. They deserve something more than television commercials." DeWitt and Truscott, on the verge of concluding negotiations over the schedule, were ready Monday afternoon to begin raising and lowering expectations about how the confrontations would unfold. DeWitt acknowledged that Granholm is widely viewed as a superb communicator, but he wanted to make sure no one assumed she would handle DeVos with ease in debate. In recent months DeVos, who sometimes appears stiff on camera, "has gotten much better," DeWitt said. Truscott, meanwhile, was lavish in his praise of Granholm's speaking skills. DeVos, he said, hopes to "hold his own" by focusing on his vision for Michigan and reminding voters about "the governor's record of failure." It's clear that the Amway Dick is worry about getting smoke and falling further back of Granholm. If you're Granholm you're licking your chops on the idea of exposing DeVos as an empty suit on statewide tv and maybe national, so you know DeVos' team is going to work day and night working to make sure he doesn't sound like a pre school kid explaining how to put a model car together when they have to explain their version for the state. I'm going out on a limb and say Granholm outside falling off the stage she should beat DeVos when it comes to substance of the debate. The important thing for me in the debates is that Granholm or someone brings up the fact DeVos has spent close to 20 million dollars he flooded our airwaves and printed ads in the media for months yet he hasn't spoke of a plan that "Turn around" plan he had got ripped for being a microwave heated version of the Bush administration plan and it lack any detail either how to do these things he promise or ways to pay for these programs. And the fact he hasn't took a stance on an issue he either give a generic vanilla answer or he avoids it complently so he has no plan and he's doesn't take stances on issues so DeVos backers why are you supporting him?