Put yourself in his shoes. You have stood by your boss for eight long and hard years; you've been waiting that long and even longer to have your chance at being in charge and then the bottom falls out.  How would you feel?

   You'd'd be in quite a funk.

   Frankly, it was unclear what mood John Cherry would be in as he granted his first state capitol interview in the wake of last week's monster story that he was not running for governor.

   Turns out any trepidation was unwarranted.

   Cherry acted as if nothing had happened. Oh sure he and his wife Pan were disappointed, but sad?

   Nope.

   Any regrets or second guessing?

   Naw.

   "The hand writing was on the wall," he suggests so there was no sense in "prolonging" the obvious.  With not enough moola to run, why bother.

    But there were lose strings to tie up.

    What about the White House shopping the story that you couldn't win?

    Didn't happen, the former candidate observes.

    So where did that story come from?

    Cherry sort of fingers two former opponents namely Speaker Andy Dillon and Lansing Mayor Virg Benero. 

    Cherry says they tried to sell the story that the White House was worried.  (It was true by the way.) 

    So did the duo try to satotogue his campaign with that stuff?

    "They may have," he retorts

     "Nobody on my staff did that," Mr. Dillon explains.

    But what about your supporters who did peddle the story when they could?

    Dillon profess no knowledge of that and when asked if it was wrong to do that to Cherry, Dillon noted, "everyone is entitled to their opinion."

    The sanguine Mr. Cherry has turned the page still rejecting the notion that he had to toss Gov. Granholm under the bus in order to win.

    "I'd have no credibility' if I had done that.  "My job was not to diss the governor."

     Loyal to the bitter and losing end.