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Illinois

* What were your favorite and least favorite parts of Gov. Pritzker’s inaugural address? Explain.

Click here for the full text if you need it.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 2:55 pm

Comments

like the message, didn’t like the lack of fact checking. h/t Alex Keefe

Comment by Not Again Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:01 pm
Just a small/smidge/tiny bit less trolling - disliked

Optimism, rhetorical vision, eloquence to the love and hope of Illinois - LOVED

It’s a great speech. Sobering to the lofty ambitions. Great work.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:04 pm
“No. Everything is not broken” is the truth and a direct repudiation of Rauner’s mantra. I didn’t have a least favorite part.

Comment by Dome Gnome Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:05 pm
The fact he talked about downstate

Comment by Gohawks123 Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:05 pm
Loved the vision and level-headed focus on getting things done. He didn’t need to take as many swipes at Rauner as he did. He won. He got the swipe that counts in.

Comment by Montrose Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:06 pm
I like how inclusive it was. I didn’t like the line about IT (suggests to me that DoIT was only the beginning…*shudder*)

Comment by Skeptic Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:09 pm
My favorite was the focus on education (K-12, vocational, community college, and universities) as part of the foundation of a strong Illinois economy.

Comment by Scamp640 Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:10 pm
I’m embarrassed to say I’d never heard of Robert Collyer nor his cited quotation until today. While I don’t think he was comparing the Rauner administration to the Great Fire, I do think it was a great quote to use for the point I think he was trying to make: that Illinois is worth fighting for, even if it’s damaged and in need of major repairs.

I thought it was a really good speech. I think most of his prepared speeches have been very well written and well-delivered.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:11 pm
One of the best Inaugural speeches I’ve heard since I got here in 1977. It seemed to have the right mixture of lofty rhetoric and recitation of campaign themes.

I think my favorite passage was:

“Remember that our ability to grow weary of hate fuels our enormous capacity to be kind. The bright moments of our past…the North Star of our future…are all lit not by ambition, partisanship or greed…but by kindness.

A willingness to be kind is a virtue often overlooked in life…a commitment to be kind in politics can change the world. Over a century ago, public policy grounded by kindness offered a penniless immigrant to Illinois a bed to sleep in, a public school education and the opportunity to succeed. 130 years later, his great grandson just took the oath of office to be Governor of this great state.

So thank you Illinois, for your faith in me. I promise to live up to it every day.”

Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:11 pm
In terms of what I didn’t like…I would have put more distance between calling for legalized cannabis and in the very next paragraph bringing up education. I understand the funding side of it, but the proximity might be “high hope,” but isn’t exactly “clear vision,” to borrow a phrase.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:22 pm
Least favorite - “Illinois is joining the Paris Climate accord.” I wonder how the City of Springfield will react with their favorite overpriced coal fired power plants? Does this mean the Capitol will go off the grid as they cannot be powered by Springfield coal?

Comment by Pontificate Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:23 pm
My favorite part was legalized recreational cannabis. I don’t have a least fav.

Comment by Dead Head Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:26 pm
Favorite part: “Let’s remember too that an aging highway system is not just concrete and steel. It’s a longer commute home. It’s missing those golden hours between dinner and bedtime when your kids are young where you spend a few minutes reading a book together and talking about their day.” That’s an excellent line and excellent reminder. Time has a cost too.

Least favorite line: “The bright moments of our past…the North Star of our future…are all lit not by ambition, partisanship or greed…but by kindness.” Not that the sentiment is terrible, but what?

Comment by Chris Widger Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:29 pm
===City of Springfield will react with their favorite overpriced coal fired power plants===

One of those was built with the Sierra Club’s blessing.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 3:32 pm
He has a terrific speech-writer, but it’s more than that: the speech-writer is fully in sync with JB’s own vision for governance of Illinois, which is what makes it worth paying attention to. One of the best political speeches I’ve read - it’s worth a detailed rhetorical analysis, for sure.

I liked the whole speech, esp. the parts about downstate (being from downstate myself), and about infrastructure (because it’s so important for downstate, where the distances are greater).

I also liked the passages about “kindness,” because good governance always has a morality informing it, and if that morality is based on kindness and our shared humanity, it will work, and we all will benefit.

I also liked the references to the incredible beauty of the state, and its richness. Sometimes on this blog (and elsewhere, natch) we forget that Illinois is a very, very rich state - it has everything except a Caribbean climate, really. And it has a visionary yet pragmatic populace, which is not a given in any state/country.

If I were the CEO of a Fortune 500 company thinking about relocating, and if JB showed up as Illinois’s Marketer-in-Chief, I’d be susceptible to persuasion right about now.

JB’s really is a very different vision, a different attitude, a different approach to governance, to Illinois and Illinoisans.

May we dare hope that we have finally inaugurated the governor this great sorely-beleaguered state has so long deserved?

A great speech and a great - and, imho, fully achievable vision - for a great state.

Comment by dbk Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 4:00 pm
“Remember that our ability to grow weary of hate fuels our enormous capacity to be kind.”

I do hope we have gotten weary of hate and are able to move forward into a kinder future for Illinois.

Comment by A Jack Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 4:52 pm
Appreciated his honesty in comparing the current condition of the State to the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire.

But disliked his implied willingness to spend every dime he can get his hands on through increased taxes, when he should be using the majority of that money to dig the state out of its current financial hole. Looking forward to his first budget to see how much financial responsibility resides therein.

Comment by Stuntman Bob's Brother Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 4:59 pm
His invoking the idea of kindness was moving…not going to balance the budget on the backs of the sick, suffering, etc. That’s poetry to my ears. Welcome JB et.al.

Comment by m4a Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 6:53 pm
== One of those was built with the Sierra Club’s blessing. ==

One of those was built with the Sierra Club’s blackmail to buy over priced wind power.

Fixed it for you Rich.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 14, 19 @ 7:06 pm