Farewell, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm

Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm ended eight years in office this morning when her successor, Rick Snyder, was sworn in. Most

Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm at the 2009 State of the State address. Husband Daniel G. Mulhern is at right.

of the state won’t miss her. She was in the state’s top job as unemployment here swelled, incomes deflated and attitudes soured. Though I’m against the term limits that prohibited her from running for a third term (we already have term limits – they’re called elections) I think it’s probably time to try someone else’s leadership.

As Granholm disappears from public life, however, so does a chief executive who kept her own name. When she married her husband, Dan Mulhern, she adopted his surname as her middle name. He did the same with hers, becoming Daniel G. Mulhern. In most formal references, you don’t see either of them without those middle initials. It’s a very cool, creative tribute to each other’s lineage that I wish I saw more often.

So as both a Michigander and a feminist, to both Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and First Gentleman Daniel G. Mulhern, I say thank you and good luck.

Image credit: Associated Press