| It doesn't sound like I actually missed much by missing last night's State of the State. As far as I understand it, benevolent overlord Rick Michigan wants to make you pay more taxes to fix roads so businesses have smoother shipping routes for their products. There was also some stuff about increasing early childhood education, which is good, but for which probably won't go any further than the first legislative budget meeting when it gets killed for lack of money. Anyway, Tom Walsh's reaction was making the rounds this morning, mostly because it was written by someone who was first supportive of benevolent overlord Rick Michigan, and then horrified by what happened during the last session's lame duck. Now the guy who Michigan voters elected because they saw him as a rational alternative to the partisan ideologues of right and left is looking weak and ineffectual. What worried me about his speech was not so much what he said -- the roads do need fixing, and high insurance rates are indeed a big negative for Michigan -- as what he didn't talk about.
By the way, did everyone see the Mitchell poll released coincidentally right before the speech that had the governor's popularity above 50 percent? Right, it was conducted by the same folks who through the summer insisted that Romney was either ahead or within the margin of error here in Michigan. Teh Demas also wrote a response column, saying that it's too late for the governor to burnish his non-ideologue credentials. The entire thing is good, but sometimes you come across a paragraph that has to be presented for all to admire. Sometimes it's because it's a rich, lucious turd of a thing, sometimes because it's a perfectly aimed nut shot (note to TJ Bucholz, are you Starsky or are you Hutch?). Of course, if Democrats don't play ball, they'll be subjected to endless editorials crucifying them for obstructionism. The Center for Michigan's Bridge Magazine will be crammed with pieces from elder statesmen gravely bemoaning that both parties need to compromise more, preferably over beer like in the days of yore.
I do believe that Teh Demas has taken a gratuitious shot at Phil Power, one of Michigan's premier members of the Very Serious Persons club ... there may be hope for her yet. |
