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State of the State

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I’ll have much more in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax, but the governor obviously toned down the Elvis routine today. Maybe he’s finally listening to the roar of his many critics. That would be a good thing.

What did you think?

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 3:21 pm

Comments

The Gov is no George W. Bush…

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 3:43 pm
Terribly delivered, with extreme stoppage and a tasteless joke about the “57 bodyguards” in DC. It is a shame that Rod attempted to try a different tone, but that tasteless joke and his horrible delivery will be what is remembered, not the issues of the “State of the State”

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 3:43 pm
I’m up in the Quad Cities, and the Governor’s emphasis on generating jobs in every county and region strikes a responsive chord. I think in terms of content, he outlined some smart ideas that should be considered in the areas of trade, growth and jobs.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:00 pm
Agree it was horribly delivered. The family values stuff was obviously contrived. You can tell he doesn’t really care about it one way or another. He seemed almost morose — like he knows something is about to happen.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:03 pm
The speech was so-so, but what was up with his delivery? I don’t know if it was him or the teleprompter, but he completely lost his way four or five times with awkward pauses and then had to go back and restate a section. The line about how did Shadrach Bond do this without a teleprompter was almost funny, but I agree that the bodyguards joke was just awful.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:06 pm
I’ve read the speech and the Gov’s press release and am quite impressed, especially given the budget problems. I didn’t get a chance to watch it yet (?). I might.

The new business web site is real nice. I quickly found info on LLCs, professional licenses, insurance and bookmarked it to return.

Comment by BD II Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:11 pm
He doesn’t seem to believe in anything. His conviction is lacking. He occasionally conjures up a few seconds of fake sincerity. It was significant that he dropped most of the ethics stuff. Even the Great Pretender couldn’t pull off the reformer routine after several weeks of bad press.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:15 pm
I was glad he started to reach out to business. I like the guy except all those business fees. Glad he is at least giving us something back in return. That website is cool!

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:20 pm
The joke was mildly amusing. Come on - the bad press of late was the elephant in the Chamber. Might as well offer some acknowledgement.

If the event had the decorum of the State of the Union, they’d light the Chamber better. But you looked good, Rich - though the Seargant at Arms seemed to distract you for a second.

Will the joke put some off? Probably. Was the teleprompter problem distracting? Somewhat. No matter what he said, there will be some among the literally dozens of us who watched or listened who will find fault with something.

But even Tom Cross said he hit some good points. Among them, reforming workman’s comp; promoting group health insurance plans for small businesses; and addressing the med/mal issue (which I hope can resolved without the insurance industry lauging all the way to the bank while docs and patients stand there with their thumbs up their behinds, wondering what the hell happened).

To paraphrase Cross; this was the salad. The entree comes during budget season.

In the interim - who doesn’t like a drink with their meal? Bartender…

Comment by BuckTurgidson Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:21 pm
The business stuff was fluff. Who cares about a silly website? Businesses want their costs lowered. As with almost all of Rod’s moves, the talk is bigger than the action. He won’t significantly reform med mal and he knows it. Right after the speech, Emil Jones was saying caps are out of the question. It will be some phony reform that means nothing. Just like his job creation mumbo jumbo. All talk and little action.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:26 pm
I was impressed that the Gov committed to addressing two of the biggest issues of the day: med mal reform and workers comp. Very important things to take on and adds substance to the legislative agenda. As urgent as these things are for people on both sides of the aisle, I hope that meaningful compromise can be met.

Also, I agree the economic development stuff is meaningful…especially the regional stuff. The deals the gov mentioned touch nearly every region of the state.

That biz website is going to be a great tool for existing and new businesses. Very sharp.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:29 pm
He made a point of stopping and thanking Pat Quinn on several occasions. Perhaps deliberately done to quiet the divorce rumors?

After a week of bad press on his environmental record, it seemeded like he was pandering to the enviros, and at the same time trying to avoid a backlash by pandering to the coal interests. Cute.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:29 pm
Re: Coal.. I think its important that he made a distinction about responsible coal development. Too often the enviros get shook up whenever the word coal is mentioned, when in fact, coal can be burned responsibly.

Hopefully the state lands the federal FutureGen coal project. Combine that with Peabody and the downstate coal industry will be booming with props to the Gov.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 4:34 pm
He want’s to build the World’s largest wind farm?

Bottle the speech.

Comment by Craig Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 5:08 pm
What’s up with so many folks commenting about the web site? I’ll admit I wandered over to take a look while reading the speech. (I was unable to watch it, but I might just to hear the ackward joke!) Yeah, it’s a functional web site. But over states have had this stuff available in one place for a while. Having so many people comment on it looks suspiciously like someone is engineering the positive comments.

As for the substance: traditional allies of the Dems have got to be worried. Workers comp reform? Med mal reform? Coal?

I did like the stuff about working with local chambers of commerce on negotiating health insurance premiums. Let’s hope the administration follows through.

Wierdest part of the prepared speech: “God forbid another attack occurs, it would be nice to know that when firefighters in Colinsville put on their equipment, the masks they slip on their faces will read “Made in America.”"

I’m as much for Buy American as the next guy, but if there’s a bio-chemical terrorist attack, 99.99% of me will not give a flying f— where gas masks were made, as long they work.

Another strange part of the speech was the comment that the Gov. just spent a couple of days in Southern Illinois. Reading the speech, it sounds like it was the first visit he made to Southern Illinois as Governor. Maybe the delivery of the speech made a difference. But if Blagojevich thinks that the wine industry will lead the way for economic recovery in Southern Illinois, he’s going to have to make a lot more trips down there real soon.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 5:35 pm
If you close your eyes, you can almost see the scrambling the past few days putting together that nothing-special website. When you are touting a website, you are seriously into padding territory. “One-stop shopping?” So Rod just promised to save me a click. I’m so grateful I think I’ll add 1,000 employees.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 5:48 pm
The speech seemed to have something for just about everyone. While the SOS is traditionally about the idealistic things that could be done, the reality will hit home in two weeks when the Governor tries to get out of his third budget deficit in a row. Business groups really need to “set the hook” on Workers’ Comp and Med Mal reform with this guy. History shows us the Governor’s memory is very short-lived. One thing that keeps eating at me, how does any person so lacking in social or leadership skills ever get elected Governor?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 5:58 pm
I think the website is outstanding - it offers gems like these:

“When starting a new business,…there will be start-up or one-time expenses. Know what these expenses will be by filling in the amounts of dollars required for each of the items listed below.”
&…
“Know what type of business you would like to start and learn all you can about it. ….
Appraise your business strengths and weaknesses. Be strict and objective.”

Wow! Thanks, Gov!

/sarc off

Seriously, do we really want to encourage the type of people who actually need this sort of worksheet to go into business in the first place?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 7:02 pm
Well if the Web Site is so bad, what Rod should do is go back to the good old days. Do you recall how this is done.

Bring Pate Philip back to bottle every bill up in rules that the Chamber, IMA and NFIB didn’t like. This made sure their lovely little hearts stayed happy and their PAC checks kept rolling in. You know all those bad bills like telling the vultures in the insurance world to cover things like mental illness. Even “W” signed that one when he TX gov. But the good old boys in the Senate GOP thought it was too liberal.

GIVE ME A BREAK, THE CHAMBER, IMA AND NFIB RULED THE SENATE FOR TEN YEARS. BRING ON THE FEES IN THE WORLD. ALL THEY KNOW TO DO IS ARGUE IT WILL COSTS JOBS. So Rod’s site may not be the best, but stop crying about it and go contribute to the state’s GRF. You had your way for decade. Your Gang of Crooks Got Beat. Deal With It.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 8:48 pm
Interesting that he mentioned all of this highway and commuting stuff, when the downstate roadbuilders are begging for business (upstate guys bought off by truck tolls), and the L in Chicago is about to shut down. Clean air and time with the kids indeed! Pretty sappy, but we’ll see if he has anything to add to fix really serious transportation probblems in his budget.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 8:59 pm
Rod is certainly oblivious to the special interests. It’s just a coincidence all of them get contracts. It’s just a coincidence that Rezko-Kelly are Panda investors and Panda gets a tollway contract. It’s just a coincidence that Milan Petrovic, Doug Scofield, David Wilhelm, Peter Fox and others are getting richer and richer. It’s all for the people.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 9:16 pm
So he can’t read, or the teleprompter malfunctioned. He still managed to do a significant amount of sucking up. Preschool for the children of individuals here illegally. Introductions of all the special people in attendance. Making it sound like not having a budget in place until July 19 last year was a good thing. And taking credit for bringing businesses to Illinois…like the Governor’s Office had anything to do with the Hospira spin-off from Abbott - which, if I recall correctly, was already based here.

If he really wants to do something good for the state, he should dump some of those campaign contributions he’s collected from California into GRF and stop laying off state employees.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 9:19 pm
Blago can’t win at this point. He’s pissed off so many people, including those in the media who describe his actions, that I can’t imagine what he could have done today that would have been positively received. Had he continued with the big spending proposals, and all the drama that usually marks these occasions, he would be portrayed as out of touch — yet again — and over-dramatic. Instead, he came in with a speech so awful it wouldn’t inspire rabbits to hump. And, in light of all the sparks over the last couple weeks, he comes off looking scared - scared of Longo, scared of the Tribune, scared of his fellow Democrats. Perhaps even scared of himself; after all, he’s his own worst enemy. The crises on his lap are of his own making.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 9:27 pm
He didn’t look like someone who wants to run for re-election.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 9:40 pm
It is SO easy to say ‘We need to keep docs from leaving Illinois’, but it’s different issue to come up with how to do it. I GUARANTEE you that the Governor’s office will not present a concrete proposal, let alone a workable one, to fix the med mal issue. (like he’s going to stick up for the docs after taking $300K from Clifford et al). Instead he will pontificate while the legislature carries the laboring oar. Same thing will go for the workers comp issue.

Violent video games will be this year’s version of the ISBE reform stuff. LOTS of talk, little end result.

Business development? He touts the Illinois wine industry but omits to mention that he gutted the Wine Council funds and eviscerated the program. Oops.

Speaking of which, is nobody troubled that he spent more time talking about wine than education funding? One of the most pressing issues out there and he puts his head in the sand. The funding issue may well be the item that truly puts the Rod/Emil coalition to test.

Perhaps the least visionary or substantive SOS speech in decades.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 10:02 pm
Did anyone else notice that Bradley Tusk is hunched forward when he walks? What’s that all about?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 10:20 pm
Where was Blago’s wife at the State of the State? She hasn’t left his side for a couple months.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 05 @ 10:21 pm
Rich and Friends
If you missed the State Speech you can watch it on the Govs web site at http://www.state.il.us/video/streaming/gov/sots020305_384k.ram
I just watched it and he seemed uncomfortable, his timing was off, some awkward pauses.
I was also very distracted by the women behind him doing the sign language, they seemed to be making obscene gestures behind his back. Watch the video and focus on the hands.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 12:12 am
Maybe this is just being nitpicky, but…

In the speech he didn’t mention any money for Illinois 336, a 4-lane highway being built from Quincy to Macomb to Peoria. This is a project that really matters for economic development in the western part of the state.

He also didn’t mention anything about funding for high-speed rail throughout the state. There was some rumblings about that a while ago, too.

I did like his proposed iniatives about wind and coal power generation, these are two things that I think deserve attention.

I liked his ideas to bring military and homeland security industries into the state. If successful, this could really help to get some high-quality jobs into Illinois to recoup some of the manufacturing base lost in recent years. These industries would be valuable assets in downstate towns who could use a greater variety of industries for economic development.

I also have to mention, too, before this speech I had no idea there was an Illinois wine industry.

He said something about a “technology incubator” in Peoria…what is a technology incubator, anyway?

Just some random thoughts….oh, and he didn’t attack anyone this year. That’s a good thing too.

Comment by Drew Hibbard Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 12:50 am
I didn’t have a chance to watch the address, but I did download the transcript from the Gov’s website.

All I can say is I don’t know if he’s just being overly ambitious, or perhaps had a touch too much wine?

Ideas are great, but lack of planning just makes it all a waste.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 7:18 am
I’m surprised Rod didn’t do a “Hillary” with his 180 degree spin on business issues. As for the website, one stop shopping has been around in IL for many years. Go to DCEO’s website, formerly known as DCCA. World trade? That’s been done before and dismantled before. Wine industry nothing new, was already in place when Rod took over and dismantled by him. Coal? Nothing new. I was hoping to hear that he was going to make an appointment to the Illinois Gaming Board so that millions of dollars in economic development projects could move forward that are now delayed. There’s a revenue source that doesn’t raise taxes or fees, just need an appointment so the board can conduct their business which they have not been able to do since late August.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 8:46 am
Some comments on comments:

“Bring Pate Philip back to bottle every bill up in rules that the Chamber, IMA and NFIB didn’t like. This made sure their lovely little hearts stayed happy and their PAC checks kept rolling in.”

Well, if G-Rod was only screwing the business groups, this comment might be well taken. The problem is he’s managed to tick off both business and labor. He’s managed to aggravate the christian conservatives and alienate the civil libertarians. The fundamental problem here is not that the Governor and his people don’t talk to their enemies; they don’t even talk to their friends.

“Blago can’t win at this point. He’s pissed off so many people, including those in the media who describe his actions, that I can’t imagine what he could have done today that would have been positively received.”

Nothing to add to that comment. It’s just worth repeating — good point.

And for those folks who point out that Blagojevich was on a crusade to eliminate the wine council a few years back: thanks. I forgot about that.

And one last word on the business web site. It’s progress, but it’s hardly unique. Overall, the web site was worthy of a press release. It certainly wasn’t State of the State-worthy (with apologies to Seinfeld).

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 9:34 am
In today’s Capitol Fax you refer to Blago as “a former Golden Gloves champion.” Not true. I know it’s a minor point — but not to boxers. Former AG Jim Ryan was a Golden Gloves champ — twice. Blago claimed to have fought in the Golden Gloves but when pressed for answers on when and who he fought, he couldn’t recall. Hmmm. I think DuPage Co. State’s Atty Joe Birkett was a Golden Gloves champ as well. He and Blago are about the same age… ask Joe if he remembers Blago at the Golden Gloves.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 9:59 am
History is written by the winners.

The only people who care that Birkett and Ryan were Golden Gloves Champs are Birkett and Ryan.

And you.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 10:37 am
History is written by what? Does anybody else remember when G-Rod was chumming for DUI clients outside traffic court? And he turns on his pappy-in-law. Typical Blago.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 11:17 pm