Beck speech long on political power brokers, short on controversy

Protesters line Harrison Ave. in East Lansing to protest an appearance and speech by controversial Fox News Channel personality Glenn Beck to the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

EAST LANSING — Glenn Beck, whose penchant for saying controversial things has led dozens of companies to pull their ads from his nightly show on Fox News in recent weeks, delivered a speech to a Michigan Chamber of Commerce dinner at the Kellogg Center on Tuesday evening that was surprisingly short on shocking pronouncements.

Despite the presence of protesters and his own history of making angry and emotional statements, Beck’s talk contained little that could be called controversial. He spoke for about an hour, expounding upon themes of patriotism, America, and pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. Beck said America was at a crossroads where it needed to make a decision.

“There is going to come a time you will have to step up to the plate and decide what you really stand for,” Beck said.

“Poor Michigan. You guys are being beaten on the rocks,” Beck said. “Greed has failed.”

Beck took both Republicans and Democrats to task, saying that both parties needed to get their own houses in order before attacking the other.

“I hate the Republicans almost as much as the Democrats,” he said.

He did offer one opinion that might be considered controversial in Michigan, even among Republicans. Saying that failure is good because it leads to success, Beck argued that businesses like General Motors — for which he was a paid spokesperson — should have been allowed to fail, rather than given a bail out by the government.

“The Republic is at stake. It could not be sustained the way the Republicans ran it. And it cannot be sustained the way the Democrats run it,” he said. “We’re allowing [elected officials] to play games.”

“This is not a country of Republicans. This is not a country of Democrats. This is a country of Americans,” Beck said.

“You can’t tear this country apart. And I know that people who are protesting today feel like that is what I do,” he said. “I have nothing to gain from this.”

Beck’s speech was met with protesters outside the venue, holding signs and pointing out some of Beck’s past statements. Citing Beck’s claim that President Obama is a racist and his continued promotion of the idea that health care reform would create death panels or give illegal immigrants health care as examples, MSU College Democrats President Mitchell Rivard said, “This is something where we wanted to bring out as many people as possible — concerned students and citizens — and challenge the lies he continues to spread.”

But Rivard’s group was not alone. About a dozen or so people held up signs supporting Beck. Among them was Okemos resident Kaye Lani Walters stood alone holding up a sign encouraging people to say no to socialism, which she believes Obama supports. She said she supported Beck and his message.

Asked if she believed Beck’s allegation that Obama was a racist, Walters did not answer directly.

“I feel like Obama is a man stuck in his own environment since he was a young boy,” she said. “He could have some redeeming qualities.”

The protesters Tuesday night were not the only ones to express their disagreement with the Chamber’s invitation to Beck to speak. Two Democrats scheduled to speak, Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township and State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith of Salem Township, both skipped a panel they were supposed to serve on earlier in the day, Crain’s Detroit Business reported, because of Beck’s appearance.

While the protesting continued on the street in front of the swank hotel and conference center at MSU, including political theater from a group calling itself “Coal Barons for Beck” and another group calling itself “Millionaires for Beck,” Chamber of Commerce members and guests were socializing over wine and drinks.

About 500 people attended Beck’s speech. Among them were such notables as Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop of Rochester, Republican State Sen. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt, Republican State Rep. Rick Jones of Grand Ledge and Democratic State Rep. Robert Jones of Kalamazoo. Bishop and Cropsey sat at the same table as Beck for dinner. Also present was Attorney General Mike Cox, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful.

Beck was not made available for interviews and was quickly escorted into the dining room and exited it via a kitchen.

As with last weekend’s 9/12 protest in Washington, D.C., an event inspired by Beck himself, there were exaggerated reports of how many protesters were present. The MSU College Democrats put out a press release saying more than 200 people were there to protest Beck, while Beck claimed, to the delight of the audience, that he had been told there were 29 anti-Beck protesters and 41 pro-Beck protesters. Michigan State University Police Department Sgt. Dan Munford put the number at 150.