Jennifer Granholm: How did she rev up the DNC?
Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan, took some shots at Mitt Romney and Granholm talked about the number of auto industry jobs saved.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm knows how to rev up a crowd.
Granholm energized the delegates at the Democratic National Convention Thursday evening with a sharp-tongued speech about President Obama's decision to bail out automakers General Motors and Chrysler and Mitt Romney's opposition to the plan.
Granholm, now a Current TV host, ripped into Romney's California home redesign, saying, "Siure, Mitt Romney loves our lakes and trees. He loves our cars so much, they have their own elevator. But the people who design, build, and sell those cars? Well, in Romney's world, the cars get the elevator; the workers get the shaft.".
Fist-pumping her arms and waving them over her head, Granholm brought delegations from Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina and more to their feet as she recited the number of jobs saved in their states by the bailout.
"With the auto rescue, he saved more than one million middle-class jobs all across America. In Colorado, the auto rescue saved more than 9,800 jobs! In Virginia, more than 19,000 jobs! In North Carolina, more than 25,000! Wisconsin: more than 28,000 jobs! Pennsylvania: more than 34,000! Florida: more than 35,000! Ohio: more than 150,000! And in the great state of Michigan? President Obama helped save 211,000 good American jobs. All across America, autos are back"
By her speech's end, her face and neck were crimson from shouting.
"America, let's rev our engines! In your car and on your ballot, the "D" is for drive forward, and the "R" is for reverse. And in this election, we're driving forward, not back," Granholm cried as the crowd started chanting, "USA!"
Here's a link to the full-text of her speech on Politico.com.
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