John Krull has a column in the Louisville Courier Journal on the new governor entitled Gov. Mike Pence’s ‘Roadmap’ for Indiana still wandering.
Gov. Pence’s legislative history never suggested a love for policy details. He’s more of an “idea man,” particularly, I think, where those ideas are abstracted from the facts on the ground. Facts are messy things and don’t lend themselves well to the sort of uncompromising ideology that has been a hallmark of the governor’s career so far. (I think an effective legislator has to approach his or her ideology in much the same way Capt. Barbossa approached the Pirate Code (“the code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.”)
In any case, whether this is the problem or not, Krull discusses some restlessness in the General Assembly about Gov. Pence’s tepid policy leadership so far. The campaign was vague, the inauguration was vague, the State of the State was vague, and 1/4 of the way through the long session, the governor’s office has not apparently been very active on specific policy initiatives.
Krull concludes, “. . . at some point, Mike Pence will have to stop waving his roadmap around, get behind the wheel and drive the state somewhere. The question that remains is where he wants to go.”
Mike Pence does not understand basic economics.
Pence doesn’t understand basic economics because Daniels is still
whispering in Pence’s ear as to policy issues and trying to run
the state like the micro-manager that he is
Knowledge, Daniels can be accused of a lot of things, but being a “micromanager” is not one of them. He was a very hands-off administrator.
That, or coming of age under Nixon, he knew not to leave records of detailed involvement. I suspect Mitch had his hand in more than evidence suggests.
I think he’s more focused on purging Indiana of “sin”… If he spends his 8 years doing a whole lot of nothing, I’m not going to complain, because his ideology could do a lot of damage to us. More than Mitch inflicted.
The fear was that Pence, as governor, would be a relentless idealogue. That may still be. But, so far, he’s just like he was in Congress — a big mouth and an empty suit. Actually, scratch that, he’s not even talking that much as a governor.
The entire rationale of Mike Pence becoming Governor was to position him to run for President in 2016 or beyond. Pence realized he needed an actual substantive position or a record other than being an extreme ideologue in the US House of Representatives. I mean running a staff of 20 as a member of Congress or managing a producer on his right wing radio show does not give the electorate a whole lot of confidence in his administrative wherewithal. Hence, run the executive branch of government for four to eight years and make a record as an executive — sounds like he is borrowing the playbook from George W.
But things have changed rather swiftly among the electorate. The country has changed, both demographically and idealogically. The Republican playbook: cut taxes, intervene needlessly in the affairs of foreign countries(and with little regard for the cost of wars) appease the fundamentalist/racist/homophobic branch of the party, prop up big banks and big business — are all running out of favor among a majority of voters. Simply put, the Republican playbook has become ancient history — and is a loser.
And then there is the gnawing perception that Mike Pence really does not have a plan to govern Indiana. Is there another Planned Parenthood battle looming that Mike can sink his teeth into? How about the Girl Scouts? Even if Pence could manage to rally the base troops in Indiana, these issues do not resonate across the country. Even Texas will be in play for the Democrats soon.
It seems to me that Pence needs another Playbook — and in the mean time, he needs to figure out how to run a rather sizeable (30,000 some employee) $28B (two year) enterprise. I, for one, am not confident that the next four years will be good years. Even though Bosma and Long are trying to derail the extremists in their caucuses (nullifcation/UN Agenda 22 etc) the truth is the loons are in charge, and Pence’s hands off strategy will not work.
Does the Emperor have any clothes? Anybody?
And Indiana voters — especially the Republican party — have no one to blame but themselves. That the party could and would nominate this empty suit as their nominee is a sad testament to how low the party has fallen.
The fearmongering/black helicopter and-no-to-everything strategy eventually comes to an end when the public begins to understand that it has been duped. People wonder why their roads are falling apart and why teachers don’t have teaching materials until they understand that there is a connection between that $100 bucks you got back and the lack of services. A governor can only play the Mitch game so many times. This is not a good time for an empty suit.