Tough nerd gets ahead of himself

"Michigan chooses Rick Snyder," or so claims Snyder's latest spot. Apparently, the Snyder camp is such that present and future are the same tense. Even an unconfirmed potential future. November 2 is still almost two weeks away. Let's say that voters do indeed choose Rick Snyder by a landslide. With a low enough voter turnout, that would still not represent the will of Michigan, mute to say "None of the above."

And supposedly Virg Bernero is a "career politician" and not a "job creator" like Rick Snyder. With both candidates claiming to have created jobs but with neither one actually refuting the other's claims with solid evidence, one has to wonder what kinds of jobs they're talking about. If I pick up a couple of illegal immigrants at Home Depot to fix my gazebo today, does that count as job creation? What if I give my neighbor's kid a buck to mow my grass?

I created a thousand jobs, he lost a thousand jobs

No one disputes that jobs are a very important issue in Michigan for this coming election. Understandably, each gubernatorial candidates will try to present himself as the magic bullet cure for unemployment.

Virg Bernero has made his message about job creation a little clearer but its factuality remains open to dispute. Not surprisingly, one Bernero ad on TV claims that Rick Snyder, while at Gateway, allowed major downsizing to happen at that company. Instead of countering that with some kind of explanation, the Snyder camp has responded with an ad claiming that the unemployment in Lansing (the city Bernero has been mayor of) has skyrocketed to 88%.

Now, in one of Snyder's own ads, the "tough nerd" also lays claim to creating jobs, though avoiding the political pitfall of saying exactly how many. The point of this newer ad is to explain that Michigan lost so many jobs because the business tax is just so gosh darn high. For an outsider, Snyder sure sounds like an inside Republican: the answer to any question is always to cut taxes for businesses and the wealthy. I remain unconvinced that cutting business taxes guarantees that businesses won't cut jobs.

Sketchy on Bernero's record for job creation

In advance of tomorrow's primary, Virg Bernero has been airing ads claiming he "created/saved 6,000 jobs." I guess he's hoping voters don't start wondering as to what exactly that means, since creating a job is not the same as saving a job.

It's a very obvious difference, but let me spell it out anyway: to create a job means to cause to come into existence a position with a salary or wages that did not exist before; to save a job means to ensure that a position with a salary or wages that already exists continues to exist.

So, how many jobs did Bernero create and how many did he save? Maybe he only created about a hundred jobs (his campaign staff) and saved about 5,900. You can argue that even if he only created 1 job and saved 5,999 that's still a good thing. But then you have to ask yourself: what exactly does one have to do in order to be able to claim that you saved a job? If I tip my barber, does that mean that I saved his job?

However, note that I'm nitpicking his ad; I'm not saying that you shouldn't vote for Bernero just because I find a nit in his ad. After all, I'm not voting for Pete Hoekstra, even though I believe what he says about cutting taxes and spending—how do I know he's not gonna cut spending on the things I like to use, like roads and libraries?

You vote for whom you want to vote tomorrow. Just vote.