Buzz building for Denise Ilitch to run for Michigan governor

In this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Politics podcast, Press editors Jeff Cranson and Ed Golder discuss: The race for governor: Anticipation builds over a Denise Ilitch candidacy when Kent County Democrats announced she would attend a party event Wednesday night, also featuring Gov. Jennifer Granholm. ilitch.jpgDenise IlitchThe Associated Press reported that President Obama made an appearance at a meeting Ilitch was having with officials at the White House. Meanwhile, Oakland County Executive and GOP honcho L. Brooks Patterson told reporters Republicans had hoped Lt. Gov. John Cherry would remain in the governor's race. Fishy politics: Michigan Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor Mike Cox turned up the heat on the state of Illinois and the Obama administration Wednesday to stop the invasive species known as Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, if it's not too late already. He launched a Web site where people can sign a petition urging the Obama administration to close locks that allow entry to Lake Michigan. Officials in most other Great Lakes states support his efforts. Tea party momentum: New York Times columnist David Brooks cites polls showing the tea party movement is now more popular than either major party and contends it will become a movement akin to that of hippies opposing the Vietnam War and other establishment causes in the 1960s. Will the movement factor in 2010 races? Conversation starters: • Ed on women in the workplace and an Economist editorial trumpeting their gains while acknowledging the challenges ahead. • Jeff on Whole Foods Republicans and an observation that while the anti-tax Club 4 Growth created a stir in an ad targeting Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean as a “latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading” liberal, one conservative scholar writes it is time to cultivate “Whole Food Republicans.”