Jennifer Granholm Quotes

Sometimes leadership is planting trees under whose shade you'll never sit.

I was approached by friends who encouraged me to run for an open seat - attorney general of Michigan. It was a big risk.

There's more technology in your car than there is in your computer. It's got thousands of parts in it. It's extremely sophisticated, all that robotics.

California is beautiful to look at, but you can't be a part of it like you can in Michigan.

When you get to the extremes there is, sometimes, just the need where you have to stand up.

If you don't have an auto industry, you will not be secure as a nation because you won't have a backbone like manufacturing to be able to put people to work in producing the means to you keep you secure.

The Clinton administration brought 65 cases from 1995 to 2000 before the World Trade Organization. The Bush administration has brought twelve. Twelve cases. They haven't even been able to stand up for our jobs.

I understand that Republicans-running-against-Obamacare-in-order-to-save-Medicare is a clever jujitsu. But how long will they play out that argument before they get back to the economy?

We need to continue to make the case that Michigan is where you ought to be.

We need, first of all, for there to be accountability, for there to be somebody who is responsible for enforcing standards and holding people's feet to the fire.

For most of the 20th century, we didn't just enjoy economic success in Michigan, we defined it. Our innovators and entrepreneurs created the world's most productive companies, and our unions made sure that productivity led to broad middle class prosperity.

I have a problem with Mitt Romney. And it's big problem - one that extends beyond our ideological differences. My big concern is that Mitt Romney wants to become president for no other reason than because there's a possibility he can win.

The question is what will Mitt Romney do as president if his policy is simply to be hands off and let the government be made so small it can be drowned in a bathtub. In the 21st century global economy, no state alone has the ability to compete against China.

Studies have shown that since women have had access to the pill and family planning measures, they have made huge gains in both wages and in careers that were dominated by men.

In five years, you're going to be blown away by the strength and diversity of Michigan's transformed economy.

Every day in America, African Americans are reminded of their race in ways large and small. Every day.

Obviously we want to keep the jobs we've got.

Republicans are definitely pro-birth (they’ll do everything they can to make sure that that baby comes out, regardless of how it got in), but are they pro-life? Can you be pro-life and vote to cut funding that supports the life of a child?

The most powerful recent innovation in government is when states aggressively use community colleges for retraining. In Michigan, where large numbers of workers were displaced from the manufacturing industry, we created a wildly successful program: No Worker Left Behind.

I really want to be governor when I have a partner in the White House.

Voter suppression laws, overzealous filibuster use, you name it - the Republicans use every tactic they can to stop our democracy from actually selecting the person with the most support.

Truly, to blame the president for high gas prices is like blaming Rudy Giuliani for 9/11.

We honor the dead best by treating the living well.

Don't mistake niceness for weakness.

From a reality perspective, I'm sure part of that is true, but this is the largest blackout in U.S. history. If that is not a signal that we have got a problem that needs to be fixed, I don't know what is.

I say Democrats should not be afraid to talk about the morality of life, of caring for children who are born. It seems the Republican obsession with being pro-life lasts about nine months. After that, it’s each baby for herself.

With respect to the environment in our state and our state's future - in addition to water which is very important here - I think it is crucial for him to make a sincere commitment to energy efficiency, fuel efficiency, by helping us to produce those cars of the future

America is an idea. And it's the solemn responsibility of each 'temporary' president to protect and nurture that noblest of all ideas - with integrity. This man, Mitt Romney, has shown - not through his experience, but through his actions and words - that he is unqualified to carry out that responsibility.

There's only so far you can go before you say enough is enough.

As governor, when I visited our troops in Kuwait and Iraq, I served them Thanksgiving dinner. It was a small gesture compared to their sacrifice.

There is a gentleness in Michigan that you just can't replicate.

With Michigan's economic future on the line, we can't afford to have our 500 local school districts marching in different directions. Instead, we need a high standards, mandatory curriculum to get all our students on the road to higher education and a good paying job.

So we just hope that all of these governors who are grappling will be able to provide the basic services to our citizens and not have to cut things that really are painful.

Our economic competitors ... are eating us for lunch, and we can get in the game or not. We can be at the table, or we can be on the table.

If you are going to be progressive, then you have to make progress. And that sometimes depends on breaking a few legs.

Often we women are risk averse. I needed the push. Now, more than ever, young women need more seasoned women to provide that encouragement, to take a risk, to go for it. Once a glass ceiling is broken, it stays broken.

Every single country that has an auto industry is stepping forward to help that auto industry. Why wouldn't we help this industry too, because it needs 3.5 million jobs.

As a state we are so uniquely positioned in so many ways. Our geography, our placement in the country, and our history positions us to be the state that propels energy efficiency as an industry.