* The weekend columns and local editorial coverage of Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State address were not exactly flattering. AP…
“The Governor, at the beginning of each annual session of the General Assembly and at the close of his term of office, shall report to the General Assembly on the condition of the State and recommend such measures as he deems desirable.” - Illinois Constitution
I don’t know if Gov. Pat Quinn glanced at the state Constitution before he jotted down his notes, but his rambled, jumbled, disjointed mess he delivered off the cuff last week was not a State of the State address.
Quinn did, I suppose, “recommend” a couple of “measures,” including income tax reform, but he barely touched on that issue.
“Our mission this year,” the governor told assembled legislators, “is to revive our economy and put people back to work.” Yet, he presented no new ideas for accomplishing that mission. The economy is in horrible shape, and the governor could’ve used his address to show he was on top of things, knew what he was doing and knew where he was going. So, we can probably safely infer that he hasn’t a clue what to do.
Instead, we were subjected to a speech that was almost Fidel Castro-like in its length, full of rambling displays of sentiment and accidentally repeated thoughts.
One reason the speech was such a technical disaster was that Quinn spoke from hand-written notes rather than from a prepared text. But a bigger reason it was a mess was that Quinn didn’t seem to put much thought into it. There was no structure, no real sense of what he was trying to say. Instead, he just stringed together his press conference talking points and regurgitated them for more than an hour.
From an audience’s perspective, there seemed to be no good reason why we were being subjected to the speech. “What is the point?” I kept asking myself. “When will we hear about some real meat?”
Even House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn’t happy with Quinn. Madigan apparently didn’t know his microphone was on when he turned to his chief of staff and cracked about the speech which had started almost an hour and a half earlier: “His people said it would be forty minutes,” adding that it was now 1:21 in the afternoon.
Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Republican candidate for governor, said the speech was a lot like Quinn’s governing, “It is basically wing it as you go.” Dan Hynes, Quinn’s Democratic opponent, said the speech was more of a “Pat Quinn state of mind speech” than a State of the State address. Both men hit it on the head.
But, wait, it gets worse.
Gov. Quinn thanked the General Assembly during his State of the State address for approving a bill that would allow the state to borrow $250 million and use it to help social service agencies. Quinn announced that he would definitely sign the legislation, and couldn’t help but get in a zinger at Hynes for blocking a similar Quinn proposal last month.
Trouble is, the bill had merely passed the House by the time Quinn spoke last week - another strong indication that little to no preparation went into that speech. Later that day, the Senate adjourned for the month without taking up the measure. Unlike their House counterparts, the Senate Republicans refused to support the new borrowing, and the Democrats didn’t have enough members in town to pass the bill on their own.
You can’t sign a bill that isn’t on your desk, so Quinn’s pre-emptive praise for the General Assembly was a major embarrassment for the governor.
The governor teared up near the end of his speech when he talked about his late father, which touched many people in the room. Quinn is, in many respects, not your usual politician. He is far more genuine than any governor we’ve had in a very long time. He didn’t fill the address with slick lines and focus group-approved ideas. He spoke from the heart. He even brought up the uncomfortable facts surrounding the botched early prisoner release program and shouldered the ultimate blame.
For all that, I give the governor much credit. But a State of the State address is a constitutional mandate of historical significance which should be taken far more seriously than Quinn did last week.
You’re the governor now, Pat. Start acting like it.
- The Court Jester - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:27 am:
“You’re the Governor now Pat, start acting like it”
ouch…
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:43 am:
You can’t wing that one. Everyone’s paying attention.
- Burnt by Blue - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:48 am:
Quinn is a joke and the only thing we can be thankful for is that come November he’s going to be back to being a gadfly and cease being the gadfly governor.
Is it time to Recall the Accidental Governor?
www.recallquinn.com
If he wins in November, I say YES WE CAN!
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:49 am:
OK, that’s one post on your link. That’s all you get. Any more will be considered spam.
- cassandra - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:54 am:
I don’t think he is capable of acting like Governor. He has had a year, and he obviously can’t govern. That won’t make much difference to the Democratic primary voters though. They have probably noted his extreme reluctance to challenge employee unions, his fondness for tax increases on middle class folks, and his strong support of a porky state bureaucracy still heavily infested with Blagojevich hires. They figure the gravy train will continue under our Pat, especially if his tax increase goes through. Hynes is less predictable. These days, better play it safe.
If the Republicans can pull themselves together, they should be able to make some great ads out of Pat’s speech. And this is shaping up to be a Republican midterm if the Republicans are clever enough to take advantage of it. But Republicans have that tendency to act crazy in Illinois. Still, Madigan must get the shivers when he thinks about November 2010 and the real possibility of a Republican governor “helping”
with redistricting.
- Gameplan - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 10:55 am:
Well anyone else have any options specifically spelled out? NO LEADER on either side has anything - except cut (cut what, who, how much, and what’s the impact on communities when you do that), and no new taxes (well fees aren’t doing it either!)
- Central_IL_farm_boy - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 11:04 am:
I agree with Cassandra. “He has had a year, and he obviously can’t govern.”
Voters need to become impatient - with all elected officials.
Mr. Quinn, you had your chance.
- curious - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 11:15 am:
“You’re the governor now, Pat. Start acting like it.”
Rich, a very good and truthful pioece of advice for our Gov. How nice it would be if Governor Quinn actually stopped campaigning for a few moments and have his staff draft a real plan for the income tax increase and meaningful cuts he could accept, in order to move the process forward this Spring.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 11:32 am:
The Governor had something to say. The problem was that what he had to say didn’t take over an hour to say it.
Quinn could have spoken for twenty minutes and would have surprised everyone by his brevity. His reviews would have been more positive, had he done this.
As to honesty, he wasn’t honest about the most important issue we face. Quinn did not say that he didn’t know what to do regarding our economy. He didn’t say that he needed everyone’s help during these challenging times. He wasn’t honest to the people in that room - most of whom is from his own political party, and have endorsed his election this year. If Quinn couldn’t be honest in front of his own supporters and insiders regarding the most important issue we face, then under what conditions could Pat Quinn finally acknowledge our biggest state challenge and his insecurity over handling it as governor solo?
Quinn couldn’t even have mailed this in. If he did, it would have been on a post card with a photo of a cowboy riding a jackalope, above which would have been written the script, “Riding A Tall Tale!”
- Captain Flume - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 2:18 pm:
“He wasted an opportunity to show he’s a true leader and not just another politician concerned about the next election.” Decatur H&R
We have no state leaders and have not had for quite a while. We have party leaders, political leaders. The “opportunity” lamented by the H&R implies there was something more to be said and that Illinois is endowed with state leaders. A politician cannot say much more what was said. Job one is re-election for any officeholder. We should not get ourselves in a swivet over the “substance,” or lack of it, in the SOTS address. And we should not expect leadership from the current and very likely any future pool of elected officials. We don’t elect leaders, we follow them.
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 2:44 pm:
While he is a case study in disorganization, I suspect Quinn would have had a much better year if he would have had even a little support from the other constitutional officers. Last Spring, they were so busy positioning themselves to maybe run for some new office that they forgot to run the state. (Jesse White wasn’t looking to move, but was certainly no help promoting a revenue fix to the budget gap.) I don’t know if anyone was trying to provide behind the scenes help, but there was nothing up front. The slate of experienced Dems in the other constitutional offices could have been a big help…but they weren’t.
Quinn clearly needs to run a tighter ship (to say the least), but the blame for the poor state of affairs needs to be spread around.
- sal-says - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
Ever get the feeling in IL that you’re in a bathtub vortex as it swirls down the drain?
- Ghost - Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 @ 4:19 pm:
I wonder if Castro would be offended….