Can the governor rise to the occasion?

Reblogged from Michigan Radio

Nobody can deny that Governor Rick Snyder is an intelligent and hard-working man. He came from very modest circumstances to earn three degrees, including an MBA and a law degree, from the University of Michigan by the time he was 24.

He then went on to make a fortune in the computer business and as a venture capitalist. Without any political background whatsoever, he ran for governor seven years ago. He was neither charismatic nor a compelling speaker.

Yet he easily beat a host of better-known Republicans for the nomination, won by a landslide, and was reelected four years later.

Snyder also did something nobody else could have done – he found a way to build a badly needed new bridge across the Detroit River. The Ambassador Bridge’s Matty Moroun may have delayed it a few years, but there is now no real doubt that it will be built.

You could in fact justify naming it the Richard D. Snyder bridge, except for the fact that Canada is paying for it. But whatever your politics, Rick Snyder has fatal flaws. The worst of these is that he is curiously tone deaf to some things, most notably, human suffering, and is uncommonly reluctant to fire those who have caused it.

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