Raleigh Dispatch: State of the State Edition
If Gov. Mike Easley ever needed to give a good speech, tonight is the night.
Sometime after 7 p.m., he will step to the podium in the House chamber and begin giving his fourth State of the State address. It will be his last, unless he should return to office after a constitutionally mandated break.
He will be speaking to an institution that has been worn and battered by the scandals surrounding former House Speaker Jim Black. Broadcast over the Internet and public television, Easley will be talking to more than 8 million citizens who wonder if government business is really typified by cash in a bathroom.
And he will be talking to a wider world that will listen very carefully what the chief executive has to say about how the ship of state should be steered for the next two years.
What a lot of people will be looking to see is whether Easley can pull a rabbit out of his hat. Can he give a speech that reclaims the news agenda from Jim Black’s problems, refocuses the honorables on their tasks at hand and assures the public that the taint of scandal can and will be purged from the halls of power?
To do that, he would have to veer from the form of his first three State of the State addresses. They were largely policy and budget speeches, laying out what programs he’d like to see funded, giving a great deal of emphasis to education, the economy and health care, in about that order of priority.
- In 2001, Easley gave his first State of the State. He was fresh off an election victory and used the occasion to both make nice to the General Assembly and tell the honorables what he wanted out of them. “You are the first legislature of the new century. You have a chance to be remembered as the group that brought sustained progress to North Carolina.” Easley used roughly half his speech to talk about progress he wanted to make in education. Health care and jobs are mentioned, but are secondary players.
- In 2003, Easley’s address turned to the economy and the state budget. He asked lawmakers not to shortchange future generations to deal with a short-term fiscal crisis. And, as this was the General Assembly of the Morgan-Black power-sharing arrangement, he asked everyone to play nice: “I challenge you, as you make decisions about this year's budget, to set aside thoughts about the problems of the moment and be guided instead by those same values that guided our forefathers.”
- In 2005, jobs are still on the agenda but education themes once again dominated the speech. His one jab at broad rhetorical sweep comes in the beginning: “When we last came together in this chamber, our country was under the shadow of war. Two years and 1400 courageous American lives later that war is still with us.” But he uses that to quickly launch into a laundry list of programs he would like to see funded.
Education, the economy and health care are themes playing against that backdrop.
Nowhere in any of those speeches does he mention the words “corrupt,” “ethics” or “integrity.”
A lot of folks will be watching to see if they are included in the 2007 version.
Comments (2)
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Reckon the weasel will tell us about his sweet land?
Maybe about his home remodeling job?
Maybe why is temporary tax is still in place?
Maybe about his eminent domain plan ?
Why our schools are rated so low?
Why we had to dig up 11 miles of I-40 as soon a it was layed?
Maybe the truth about the tall ships?
Naw we want hear none of this.
Posted on February 19, 2007 7:45 AM
I listened to Sleazely's second inaugural address . . . full of all the predictable pretties & platitudes about good & responsible government.
As a former public servant hosed on his watch, I gave the Governor the benefit of the doubt and I asked for his help.
Zip. Nadda. Nothing.
I'll be listening. But I won't be believing.
Good riddance.
Posted on February 19, 2007 1:40 PM