Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has filed the paperwork necessary to run for a second term, and Michiganians are filled with excitement.

That last part was a joke.

I guess you could say her first term has been a bit of a joke, but no one would really be laughing.

However, you would hear a lot of muted sobs and attempts to keep the crying from being heard. There is no other way to put this; but her first four years have been a disaster, yet she has a shot at being reelected.

According to a WDIV Detroit and Detroit News poll that The Hill covered, a shocking 56 percent of people surveyed approved of the job she was doing. From that article…

In terms of the job being done by Witmer, 56.2 percent of Michigan voters said they approve, compared with 48.3 percent in the fall. The most recent poll also showed that 38.7 percent of voters disapprove, compared with 44 percent in the previous poll.

The survey indicated that the improvement in Witmer’s ratings was driven largely by independent voters. Just more than half of independents disapproved of her performance in September 2020, a figure that was down to 27.9 percent in the latest poll.

In terms of approval among independents, Whitmer has also seen a 45-point improvement from minus 11 percent to plus 34.4 percent, WDIV reported.

As I have covered here over the past two years, Whitmer has had some really big goof-ups. Here are just a few of the things I have written about during this time.

Gretchen Whitmer Sneaks off to Florida to Visit Her Dad, Ignoring Her Own Suggestion.

Whitmer Reveals How Much Was Paid for Her Private Jet Trip to Florida and It Was Not Much.

Michigan Legislature Eliminates Whitmer Emergency Power Law and She Can’t Veto.

From the last article above, from July 2021…

Today, House Republicans voted to approve the citizen driven Unlock Michigan initiative, which seeks to strip Governor Gretchen Whitmer and future Governors of the overreaching emergency powers from 1945. With today’s veto proof vote and the Senate’s last week, the legislature has officially revoked these emergency powers.

“Today’s vote is a resounding victory for the people of Michigan, who over the past year, suffered needlessly under Governor Whitmer’s abuse of the 1945 Emergency Powers which she used to impose some of the most restrictive COVID rules in the nation,” said Eric Ventimiglia, executive director for Michigan Rising Action. Ventimiglia continued, “Thanks to the work of Republicans in the legislature and hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who took part in the Unlock Michigan initiative, Michigan will never again allow Whitmer or future governors to wield unilateral and unchecked power over the people of our state.”

The repeal of the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act turns the page on a dark period in Michigan’s history, which saw the Governor seize unprecedented power in the name of public health. After nearly a year of tireless work, every day Michigan citizens collected enough signatures in the “Unlock Michigan” initiative to force the veto proof vote in the legislature repealing the law

Gov. Gretch and her team were in some dire straits back in 2021, before one of her Emergency Power Laws was thrown over the Mackinac Bridge, never be used again. This came on the heels of her sneaking off in private jets to go visit her dad in Florida and to the Biden inauguration during the lockdowns here — and citizens being fined for not obeying her orders.

Yet, after her emergency power was revoked, she stopped cheerleading for all of Michigan to continue following the ever-changing and confusing CDC guidelines, and people started to get back to normal. Unlike her other, authoritarian Democratic Governors, who continued pushing for mandates.

This, in my mind, accounts for the rebound in her approval ratings in this poll.

This is why, according to WXYZ.com, in her announcement she wanted to skip past all the ugly stuff that has happened.

The governor steered clear of mentioning partisan fights with the GOP-controlled Legislature, which blocked her proposal to increase the gasoline tax to fix roads and later fiercely opposed her COVID-19 orders that closed schools and businesses.

She emphasized how the bills she signs are bipartisan, including laws to land General Motors’ largest-ever investment, cut business taxes, boost education spending and provide $400 per-vehicle auto insurance refunds.

“Despite all the challenges, we are making real progress while the Michigan economy continues to get stronger,” she said.

The GOP still has to pick someone to go up against her also, and that contest will start heating up here shortly. No matter who wins that right to face off against her in November, hopefully people will be reminded of what a truly awful job has been done here over the past three-and-a-half years and choose to go into a new direction.

Can she win reelection? Yup. I have lived in this state all my life and have seen some pretty dumb things happen politically.

However, the political headwinds are against her, and with a crop of impressive candidates looking to face off against her, this race could break open wide for her defeat in the blink of an eye — instead of getting poked in the eye politically, like we have the past four years.