Gov. Mitch Daniels may not honestly believe that curse words and spitballs are keeping up Hoosiers at night, but you wouldn't have known it by listening to his State of the State address, which was as strangely heavy on the "get off my lawn!" rhetoric as it was bizarrely light on any talk of economic recovery. Lesley Stedman Weidenbener pointed this much out in her write-up of the remarks:
Throughout his address, Daniels referred often to the economic downturn, calling this a time of "great stress" and "national and even international alarm."
But Democrats said that they were surprised Daniels didn't speak more directly about jobs. He offered no new spending specifically to create jobs.
Instead, he referred to jobs only as he spoke about the need to keep taxes low.
"A state striving for economic greatness should constantly be looking for ways to reduce its burden on workers and enterprise," Daniels said.
Hey, here's a big burden curently facing hundreds of thousands of Hoosier workers: They are unemployed.
Which isn't to say that Daniels didn't discuss a few potentially fruitful ideas last night. Local government reform and redesigning our classrooms are necessary parts of a broad-based campaign to pull Indiana into the 21st Century. But if we arrive there with no public infrastructure, failing local governments, and an unemployment rate of ten percent, I doubt the stunningly low tax rate for businesses is really going to be the talk of the town.
One thing I mentioned last night on Abdul's show that I think bears repeating is the simple fact that Republicans will soon be dealing with the quickly diverging paths of Mitch's ideology and his party's partisanship. A lot of what he did manage to discuss last night -- the good, the bad, and the proverbial ugly -- will not come without a fight on both sides of the aisle. Small government and lower taxes sounds great in theory, but when Republican lawmakers from rural Indiana have to tell their constituencies that half the fire department is getting facing lay-offs and the school system is fundamentally changing, we'll see how many folks are willing to ride around on a motorcycle with the My Man Mitch machine.
It's going to be a very, very interesting session, to say the least.
Governor Mitch Daniels just began speaking, and we can expect a speech heavy on the comparisons to other states. The struggle will be for Daniels to convince individuals from both parties to sign on to a legislative agenda that faces stiff opposition from the left and the right sides of the aisle in both chambers.
I'll have a transcript below the fold, and video as soon as it is posted.
Additional thought: Is it just me, or is Mitch Daniels trying to spectacularly throw school bullies under the bus in the hopes that no one notices he is flat-lining public education funding. Sure, we all hate lawyers -- or at least say we do -- but I'd rather we have a more serious conversation on our financial situation and less focus on backtalk in the classroom.
Video: Watch it here. I'll have some additional thoughts in a little bit.
For those who care, Governor Mitch Daniels was re-elected in November, and today will take the ceremonial first step to his second and (thankfully) final term. Festivities will be, apparently, very sparse.
Gov. Mitch Daniels will make a brief inauguration speech today after being sworn in for a second term and will be in front of a crowd again Tuesday to give the State of the State address.
Daniels said he's treating the speeches as a pair: Monday's address is a more poetic outline of his long-term vision for the state, while Tuesday will be a more businesslike speech about the immediate challenges Indiana faces.
[...]
"I'm trying to find the right balance between realism and optimism," Daniels said. "We're facing very difficult times right now and possibly for quite some time. But also, I think it's important to keep some perspective historically.
For a guy that has been light on the "realism" end of the spectrum as of late, I'll be curious to see whether the Guv can resist the self-congratulatory back-patting long enough to honestly lay out his slash-first-ask-questions-later strategy for economic recovery.
For those of you in the Indianapolis listening area, it looks as if I will be joining Abdul and the gang for some post-game analysis after tomorrow evening's State of the State address. Look for both radio and speech festivities to kick off around 7pm.
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