Last year a Kucinich representative visited the county Democratic Party meeting and got a warm, but disappointing, reception. "In terms of where Kucinich was on most issues," Lavieri recalled, "that's probably where most people were. We thanked him, but nobody was for Kucinich. That's when it hit me that the issue was electability." Lavieri reports extraordinary interest -- even volunteers paying party membership fees -- and extraordinary passion, but mainly against Bush, not for any Democratic candidate.

"Everyone has like three candidates," not one for whom he or she is vigorously campaigning, he said, including himself. He's a former Bob Graham supporter who has a Wesley Clark bumper sticker on his car but is still undecided. "I could be easily persuaded to vote for Edwards, but I'm comfortable with Kerry."

A month ago, retired psychological nurse Patty Holly had been insisting the party line up behind Dean. But she voted on the Internet, as Michigan's caucus rules permit, for John Kerry, someone she sees as less "hair-trigger" and more "presidential" than Dean. Retired auto dealer John Chapin decided during the course of a telephone interview that he favored Edwards as young, positive and charismatic, even though he'd earlier said he liked Kerry and Clark equally. Jeanine Keeney, a former teacher, was an early Kerry backer who didn't waver, and according to the polls she will be in a decisive majority on Saturday. Even many of the Kucinich supporters at the UAW local hall, who had liked Rep. Dick Gephardt before he dropped out, liked Kerry as their second choice.

But the anticipated big vote for Kerry reflects more cool calculation than passion, among both voters and among the politically influential unions in this state. The labor movement itself, a major force in Michigan politics, has been divided, but not in a rancorous way (unlike the deadly duel in Iowa between Gephardt and Dean supporters). Lacking a two-thirds majority for any candidate last October, the AFL-CIO remained neutral. The United Auto Workers, the 800-pound gorilla of state Democratic politics, has also remained neutral.

Last fall, a coalition of more than 20 unions backed Gephardt, who withdrew after his Iowa fourth-place showing. Recently they have been meeting to decide whom to endorse. It most likely will be Kerry, even though Kerry has supported all of the global free trade agreements that these unions, in particular, dislike. Harry Lester, regional director of the Steelworkers Union, part of the Gephardt coalition, says that he and his members are supporting Edwards, as a candidate who is "speaking out on the issues, about bringing jobs back to the country, giving incentives to companies that keep jobs in this country." But at the request of the union's top officers, he made no official endorsement, and he could easily switch. "I think Kerry is a good man," he said. "He'd do a great job." But he had good words for Dean and Kucinich as well.

On the other hand, Bob Potter, president of the 34,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers local in Michigan, was freed by Gephardt's withdrawal to back Kerry, whom he'd favored all along. "I see him as the mainstream of the Democratic Party," Potter said, contrasting him with Dean as someone who might be "too left of center" for the general election. "I think he's been aggressive about the economy being a central issue in the campaign." Kerry, who had only the backing of the firefighters among labor unions at the start of the season, now has support from the Communications Workers, the United Farm Workers, the Michigan Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and others.

Dean's big labor supporters -- AFSCME (public employees) and the Service Employees (SEIU) -- continue to work hard for their man, despite an expected poor showing in Michigan. SEIU has taken laptops to members' workplaces so that they can sign up for the caucus and then vote on the Internet. "We've had a lot of members energized by the process," said SEIU state council president Phil Thompson. "We're trying to sell the principles of Dr. Dean and how his political positions will help public employees, but we've seen a little bit of second-guessing since Iowa and the New Hampshire primary. One thing I do notice is our members are very much in the camp of anybody-but-Bush."

Among Michigan's large black population, the most reliable Democratic voters, the patterns of opinion are similar, but perhaps even more intense. "My impression of African-Americans in Michigan and throughout the country is that they are willing to support any viable candidate to defeat George Bush in the fall," said Vincent Hutchings, an associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan. "There's no consensus candidate."

Don Boggs, president of the Detroit-area Central Labor Council, largely agrees, but he cautions that Democrats still have a challenge convincing black Democrats that a victory will make a difference. "People understand the importance of getting rid of George Bush," he said, "but I don't see any particular candidate who has galvanized support, or who has convinced them that they'll make a difference for African-Americans. It will take some work."

Ultimately, Michigan Democrats, whomever they're backing, seem convinced that any Democrat will do better than Bush on jobs, healthcare and trade. They also sense the urgency of action.

"Somebody has to do something or this will be like Mexico in a couple of years," Hoag said. Indeed, as he talked, workers from a small foundry were in a room next door discussing their employer's demands for wage concessions. Their plant's workforce had been cut in half in the past few years by a shift of work primarily to China. That same day, Mayor Walker was negotiating with Greenville's second largest employer, bankrupt auto parts manufacturer Federal-Mogul, trying to keep company executives from shutting down and following Electrolux out of town.

At the UAW union hall, the local leaders -- most with two to three decades of experience at the plant -- took comfort in the support they'd received from the community. Many businesses were offering discounts to Electrolux workers. "Even the funeral home was offering a 10 percent discount," Pellow noted. Then they all broke up in laughter, the only thing, they said, that preserved their sanity in a world that looks to them more and more insane.

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