Governor Jim Blanchard: Nobody Does This Alone

In 1979 a Treasury official pulled Congressman Jim Blanchard aside and told him Chrysler was going broke. Chrysler did not yet know how bad it was. The public would not know for another month. He could not repeat a word of it, and the rescue was going to land in his lap whether he wanted it or not.The reason that call went to him traces back four years, to something he did as a freshman that was unpopular in his own district.By the time the news broke he was ready. He had already called every Democrat on his committee from a cottage in Ontario with one request. Hold your position until we talk. That fall he talked to Lee Iacocca almost every other night. He explains what was actually at stake, and why passing the bill was only half the job.He also walks through the Michigan Education Trust, which he built with treasurer Bob Bowman and which twenty-nine states went on to copy, and what still separates it from the 529 plans it inspired.As President Clinton’s ambassador to Canada he rode a train from Newfoundland to British Columbia before he unpacked his bags in Ottawa. He wrote about those years in Behind the Embassy Door. He describes what Canadians said about him afterward, and how much of the American economy runs through a border most people never think about.Underneath all of it is a question about who helped him. His mother, who raised him alone. A Ferndale basketball coach who kept him off the court and pointed him somewhere else entirely. Decades later Governor Blanchard picked up the phone to tell that coach what it had meant.Governor Blanchard served four terms in Congress and two terms as governor of Michigan, was appointed United States ambassador to Canada by President Clinton, and serves on the board of the National Archives Foundation, where he is Immediate Past Chair.Dan and Governor Blanchard have known each other about forty-five years. They both came up through Attorney General Frank Kelley’s office. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danloepp.substack.com