While she certainly electrified the Democratic National Convention, Jennifer Granholm also mildly shocked some of us folks back in Michigan who hadn't seen such a fiery side of Granholm in the eight years she served as our governor.
"The whole thing was kind of surreal for me," said Mike Bishop, who, as Senate Republican leader when Granholm was governor, spent many hours in toe-to-toe political and policy confrontations with her. "I was amazed. She just seemed all of a sudden full of the Holy Spirit and began to preach. ... She never took it that far with me."
I don't recall a single fist-pump during any of Granholm's eight State of the State speeches, nor much wild gesticulating when state government had to briefly shut down for lack of a budget in 2007. (Although there was plenty of finger-pointing.)
• Read the speech: Full text of former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's speech at Democratic National Convention
• Related content: Granholm cheers saved auto jobs, rips Romney in animated Democratic convention speech
• Rank convention speeches: Romney, Obama, Clinton, Granholm: Who gave the best 2012 convention speech?
Purely political speeches, however, are different, and conventions are the place to do them. It also helps to be out of elective office, and maybe there's a little extra motivation in trying to call attention to your new gig as a political talk show host.
Whatever provided the kindling, Granholm certainly lit a fire under the Democratic delegates in Charlotte, N.C., as one of the warm-up acts Thursday night for President Barack Obama, and on Friday, her 6 1/2 minute piece of performance art was still getting lots of buzz. A video of the speech on YouTube had almost 20,000 views by 5 p.m., and CNN replayed the whole thing as part of its 6 p.m. "Situation Room" news program.
While the Drudge Report featured a photo sequence of Granholm waving, roaring and exhorting with the caption, "Ex-Michigan gov in podium meltdown," CNN commentator David Gergen tweeted: "If anyone ever tells you a woman can't give an energizing, hard-hitting speech, tell them to watch video of Jennifer Granholm."
During the speech, Jonathan Karl, senior correspondent for ABC News, said: "Wow. Jennifer Granholm has the crowd on fire talking about the auto bailout."
A report in the Wall Street Journal called her speech "the stem-winder of the day."
The Christian Science Monitor described Granholm's speech as an "arm-waving, cheerleading tour de force" and credited her with two of the entries on its list of the convention's best lines:
• "He loves our cars so much, they even have their own elevator" -- a reference to the parking system Republican candidate Mitt Romney has plans to install at his home in southern California.
• "In Romney's world, the cars get the elevator, and the workers get the shaft," added Granholm, who devoted much of her speech to exuberant praise for Obama's federal rescue of failing Detroit-based auto companies General Motors and Chrysler in early 2009.
Current TV, where Granholm hosts the nightly "War Room" program, quoted her on Twitter as saying of her elevator/shaft line: "We tried to get it in 140 chars or less," apparently for the ease of re-tweeting.
Granholm has lived mostly in California since leaving office, teaching and doing her TV show, plus regular appearances on other shows. A former Michigan attorney general, she was governor from 2003-10, the first woman in the state to win the job, which she held through the worst economic downturn in Michigan since the Great Depression, including the near collapse of the domestic auto industry and the permanent loss of a million jobs.
Bill Ballenger, editor of the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter, said Granholm has always been an effective speaker, but came on at the convention with "a new level of intensity."
"I had never seen her quite as wound up when she was governor," he said.
"I thought she was obviously into exciting the (Democratic) base, and she was feeding them as much red meat as she thought they could handle."
Bishop, a candidate this year for Oakland County prosecutor, said his longtime political adversary "really seemed to take the brakes off in that speech. She was jumping around and letting it all out. She really seemed to be at peace with who she is and what she stands for."
But Bishop said he's still voting Republican in the fall.
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