You know that stretch of highway. It's 42 miles of I-94, west from Detroit to Ann Arbor. You've driven it coming back from break, a concert at the Fox Theatre or a weekend of debauchery in Windsor. Unless you live there, you probably didn't stop in Dearborn. But you know its story - it's just like the rest of Michigan's.

Dearborn is home to the struggling Ford Motor Company. It was once home to the American Dream. That was a long time ago, when men like Henry Ford, Ransom Olds and the Dodge brothers transformed Michigan's mostly agricultural economy with the automobile.

That pride still reverberates here as you drive past row after row of buildings stamped with the iconic blue Ford oval, past giant American and Ford flags, flying side by side.

Then reality sets in. You remember the headlines. $5.8 billion lost in the third quarter - Ford's biggest loss ever. The death of innovation. Once-popular cars like the Explorer and Taurus sitting on lots or discontinued. Skyrocketing gas prices pushing consumers to buy fuel-efficient small cars, driving the behemoths built by Ford and General Motors into extinction. The American auto industry is going through a painful restructuring, and taking Michigan with it.

You walk the grounds of the Henry Ford Estate on the University's Dearborn campus, built on land donated by the Ford family, and stare into the garage at the antique cars behind its dusty glass doors. You wonder if Ford, GM and the state of Michigan may soon join those relics.

Leaving, you get on the highway and drive to Ann Arbor, one of the few parts of the state that aren't hurting. You drive past the giant Uniroyal tire and over the $2-million electric blue overpass meant to be a "gateway to Detroit."

You get back and turn on your television; it's flooded with ads for Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her Republican challenger, businessman Dick DeVos. They say they have answers. Repeal the Single Business Tax, DeVos's ads say, and make Michigan a better place for business. Granholm's ads say it's the Bush Administration and treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement that are to blame. She says the state should give every Michigan high school student a $4,000 scholarship to increase the number of college graduates and attract businesses.

But experts at the University said it's not that simple as they tried to parse the candidates' plans last week.

Political science Prof. John Jackson, who studies transitioning economies like Michigan's, said it's a problem of trees.

In a healthy forest, new trees are always growing up to replace the old ones as they die. Sometimes, though, the old trees get so big that they hog all the nutrients and sunlight, crowding out new growth.

That's what happened in Michigan, Jackson said. The Big Three automakers dominated the economy for most of the last century, leaving little room for entrepreneurship in other sectors.

"People residing in areas dominated by large enterprises did not have the same attitudes as people living in other areas," Jackson said of other economies in transition. They get used to hegemony and don't try to build other industries.

Now, as the automakers struggle, there aren't enough new companies to employ Michiganders, and young people are leaving the state in droves.

How much can a governor do?

New forests don't grow up overnight.

Governors' ability to affect the economy in the short term is limited, public policy Prof. Paul Courant said.

"We're talking things that take five or 10 years to materialize," he said. "Not three or four."

Courant, a former University provost said attracting businesses has more to do with creating a culture shift than a series of government initiatives.

If you listen to the candidates, though, you might think differently. In DeVos's response to the questionnaire printed on page 4 of this magazine, he said he will make more change in 48 days of being inaugurated than Granholm did in four years.

Courant disagrees.

"Government is not the most important thing in economic development," he said.

Single Business Tax in the crosshairs

One of the centerpieces of DeVos's economic plan is cutting taxes and red tape.

The Single Business Tax, a tax on business profits and payroll, is set to expire in 2009, but DeVos has said he would push for an immediate repeal. He said he would replace half of the $1.9 billion in lost revenue with a tax on corporate profits or gross receipts. Granholm wants to reduce the tax, which is levied on businesses even if they don't turn a profit. She said she would also eliminate loopholes if re-elected.

But economics Prof.