Payne: Obama promises in 5 years you'll be blown away

On Wednesday, the Democratic Convention celebrated its outreach to women by keynoting Harasser-in-Chief Bill Clinton whose presidency is best remembered for groping Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick.

How to top this jarring contradiction on Thursday?

Open Obama’s big night with his ideological twin, Jennifer Granholm – the spectacularly failed governor of Michigan who experimented with anti-business Obamanomics on Michigan before they were tried on the national patient – in primetime to cheer four more years.

Sure enough, Obama’s speech was a remarkable echo of Granholm’s 2006 State of the State “blown away” address. Both speeches promised more spending, more green “investment,” and asked voters for patience while Big Government programs build a new economy. “If you turn away now. . . change will not happen,” promised Obama.

And in five years, you’ll be blown away.

Democrats point to two-term Jenny as a model for Obama’s scorched-earth, 2012 class warfare campaign tactics. Facing a listing Michigan economy and a successful businessman candidate when she ran for re-election in 2006, the Harvard Law-educated, silver-tongued, first-woman, green governor (sound familiar?) Granholm demonized Amway’s Dick DeVos as a China-outsourcing, out-of-touch Richie Rich. But Mitt Romney is no Dick DeVos. A seasoned politician – unlike Devos whose generational run was his first bid for office – Romney is an Olympics icon and one of America’s most admired entrepreneurs.

Worse for America, Granholm’s second term is a disturbing preview of Obama II.

No political analogy is perfect, and Granholm’s first term was hardly the disaster that Obama’s has been. Skating on the coattails of her successful predecessor, GOPer John Engler, Granholm managed an economy with unemployment stalled at 7 percent. It was her second term – launched with that Obamesque 2006 speech – when she really put Granholmnomics – ie, Obamanomics – to work.

She led her second term with a $2 billion government stimulus (to “create tens of thousands of new jobs. We’ll invest. . . public and private funds to develop new sectors of our economy. And in five years you’ll be blown away,” she boasted). She “invested” billions in Green companies promising a new Michigan economy. But – like Obama’s Solyndra – the results were bankrupt companies like RASCO and Fisher Coachworks electric bus company.

Her budgets were a lesson in fiscal chaos. Before there was a federal debt ceiling showdown, there was Granholm’s 2007 budget showdown that shut down Lansing. Before Standard & Poor’s Obama downgrade, ratings services downgraded Granholm’s Michigan from “AA− with a stable outlook” to “AA− with a negative outlook.” Before Obama’s proposed tax hike in the middle of a recession, there was Granholm’s 14 percent recession tax hike-with the resulting revenue disappearing in an even larger $2 billion deficit. Before Obama’s stubborn 8 percent unemployment, there was Granholm’s ballooning 11.4 percent unemployment.

On Thursday, Granholm talked about the promise of Obama’s second term. As Michiganians know too well, it’s a promise of more disappointment.