Terri Lynn Land in front of reporters makes deer in headlights look calm & intelligent
NOTE: This post has been updated HERE with video of Land’s faceplant at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
I was pondering Terri Lynn Land’s lack of public appearances recently and knew that she was not going to be able to avoid facing reporters this week at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. Sure enough, today she faced a crowd of reporters and what transpired would be downright hilarious if this weren’t a woman running for the United States Senate.
Land was asked her opinion about “net neutrality”, the concept of keeping access to the internet fair by ensuring that all data on the internet is treated equally and that service providers aren’t allowed to discriminate or charge different users different fees. At its core, net neutrality encourages new innovations and entrepreneurs because new start-up companies compete on a level playing field with giant telecommunications companies with vastly greater resources.
Land’s answer? “I think the internet should be free.”
I’m not kidding:
“I think the Internet should be free,” Land said. “It is a great source of information. I’m on Twitter and a fan of Twitter. I think that’s a very important part of this. It’s a way to actually interact with the community.”Asked to clarify her position, Land later explained that she was not proposing free national broadband access. “I think it’s important that the costs don’t go up so people can have access to the Internet,” she told reporters.
According to Gongwer New Service’s reporting, the exchange was even dumber than this reveals:
Reporter: When you said that you think the Internet should be free are you talking about broadband infrastructure free access nationwide?Land: Right, right.
Reporter: So you think that if you were in the Senate you would push for the creation of a nationwide broadband infrastructure with free access?
Land: No, no, no. We were talking about one specific item, there.
Reporter: Right, net neutrality, which is about access to faster Internet, not free Internet.
Land: Right. I think that … I think it’s important that the costs don’t go up so people can’t have access to the Internet, meaning that what he said, if it’s faster than they’re gonna charge more to the consumer.”
Net neutrality has been a huge topic of national discussion for several years now. But, apparently, Terri Lynn Land has been too busy working with the Koch brothers and the DeVos family to fund her campaign to actually pick up a damn newspaper and keep up with the major political discussions happening across our country.
It appears that I have actually been giving Land way more credit than she deserves in terms of her level of competence. I figured she was dodging reporters to avoid giving her opponent anything to ding her on. As it turns out, she’s been avoiding the press because she was afraid of being revealed for the uninformed, unqualified, out-of-her-league, power-seeking politician that she is.
What is now painfully evident is that Terri Lynn Land is Michigan’s version of Sarah Palin. Land’s “I think the Internet should be free” comment is akin to Palin responding to the question “What newspapers do you read?” with the now infamous, “Um, all of them.”
I don’t have a problem with uneducated, uninformed, non-intellectual people, in general. What I DO have a problem with is them running for office, particularly a national office like the U.S. Senate. Terri Lynn Land isn’t just not ready for prime time, she’s an embarrassment to Michigan. What’s clear is that, the more she speaks in public, the wider the gap Gary Peters will open up between the two of them heading into November.
There was one more bit of proof from today of her status as The Michigan Embarrassment: her position on the federal government rescuing the auto industry during the Great Bush Recession. When asked about it today, she completely avoided the question:
Land, a Byron Center Republican, had defended presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s anti-bailout position two years ago and noted that GM had become known as “Government Motors.” She declined to revisit the topic Wednesday during a brief exchange with reporters, which she cut short following the forum.“I’ve always supported auto workers,” Land said. “Detroit put Michigan on wheels. They’re the backbone of our economy here in Michigan. It’s great that the autos are doing well. I support the autos, and what I want to do is go down to Washington D.C. and make sure we have a competitive environment here in Michigan and that you don’t over-regulate, you don’t overtax and you don’t over-burden Michigan families.”
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson’s response was spot on. “We’ve got hundreds of thousands of jobs on the line,” he said. “You’re a candidate for the U.S. Senate seeking to replace Sen. Carl Levin, and you would not have supported the auto rescue? That speaks volumes.”
Terri Lynn Land is an embarrassment. The Michigan Embarrassment.
"Give me your internets, yearning to be free." – Terri Lynn Landhttp://t.co/okCOvZTG6W #michiganembarrassment
— Chris Savage (@Eclectablog) May 29, 2014
