“I am speechless,” said an affable Robert G. Liggett, Jr., owner of the Grosse Pointe News and Big Boy Restaurants International, LLC, describing his reaction to the November 2008 defeat of the GOP ticket in his opening remarks to the Eastside Republican Club Forum.

Although an early supporter of Michigan's native son, Mitt Romney, Liggett displayed his loyalty to national standard bearers by donning a McCain/Palin baseball cap for the partisan audience as he addressed the Eastside Republican Club on Presidential Inauguration Day, January 20.

“What has happened to us?” asked the Grosse Pointe Shores entrepreneur.

Answering his own question, Liggett noted that John McCain was a decent man. “We had a good shot, but when the media start working on you and pulling you apart this can happen!”

“The media are gleeful,” he said. “They stacked the cards against the GOP and the conservative cause, and we were unable to sell our ideas.”

“I am speechless. I see us, people like myself, who start businesses and are happy to give to hospitals, schools, etc. -- where are the `terrible' conservatives?”

Pointing to media bias, he observed, “Imagine wanting to serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary, but not paying your income taxes!” If this were a Republican administration, he said the press would “put you through the wringer.”

Liggett suggested that recent events point to “a government that seems to be running wild.”

As he views the prospects of a new administration, he expressed concern over the prospect of higher taxes and burdensome regulation. He said, “We're faced with a real dilemma.”

“I am very willing to give Mr. Obama and his leadership group a chance to prove us all wrong,” he said.

But for that to happen, he explained, “Everything that I know would have to be wrong. I have a fear it's not going to work out that way.” He expressed his own hope that the new president would “move to the center.”

Considering the special interests that supported the new administration, he added, “These groups are not going to do it right -- but I hope I'm mistaken.”

As for the GOP, for the next four years, he said, “Our job will be to hang on.”

Recognizing that today's minority Party has limited power, he offered this advice to conservative commentators, “Find the people, ideas, and opportunities we need to sell our ideas.”

Liggett told the group that his perspective was that of someone born in the middle of a war, and into an economy in which the depression hadn't lifted. He said he witnessed how WWII had pushed technology.

He said that technological explosion ushered in the boom of radio and television broadcasting. But today, even they are being replaced, “Computers are taking over,” he said.

“It's been pretty rough for daily newspapers and television,” he commented. Keeping up with the times, even his local weekly paper, the Grosse Pointe News, offers a sophisticated web edition at grossepointenews.com/.

At the local weekly, he said he is looking forward to seeing more local editorials, “I embrace that,” he added. As for controversy, “I want to see both sides,” he said.

Liggett's local business interests include the historic Shores Theater in St. Clair Shores, Speednet, LLC, and five radio stations in the Port Huron area.

In response to a question from an audience member, he said he was optimistic that St. Clair Shores would have a state-of-the-art theater in operation by the end of 2009.

He got his start in the business side of broadcasting in 1970, when just after graduating from law school, he bought his first radio station, Lansing's WFMK.

Liggett's love of broadcasting dates back to Utica High School, where he “fell in love” with radio as a 14-year-old disk jockey for WBRB in Mount Clemens. Subsequently, Liggett worked his way through Wayne State University doing voice-overs, Olympia Stadium announcing, as a Flint radio DJ, and performed a stint with WJRAM.

Over the years he established the Liggett Broadcast Group, owning more than 25 stations in Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, New York and California. In 2000, Liggett sold the company to Citadel Communications.

In addition to entrepreneurial activities, including the recent investment with Walsh College trustee Jack Krasula in a Tampa-based bank, HomeBancorp Inc., Liggett has established a philanthropic trust to assist people in need, fund medical research, and support the arts.

Liggett also serves on the board of the Wayne State University Foundation, the board of Detroit's WTVS public television station, the Detroit Historical Society, and the St. John Hospital Foundation.