Hey Guv, Where’s the Drama?
First, I no longer harbor any doubts that I am becoming my mother. Now that I’m home full-time, especially in the mornings when I gaze out the kitchen window, suck my thumb and write this blog, I’ve been listening to talk radio. It’s what I grew up on–a steady stream of screaming, ranting AM radio voices coming from the boxy plastic clock radio on the kitchen counter, or when my mother was out working in the yard, from a tinny transistor radio.
So ’60s!
Well, I’m listening to KSL-AM 1160 as I write this. Talk show host Doug Wright has asked callers to offer their opinions on Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s State of the State speech from last night. And, as it happens, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson last night gave his State of the City address. It posed a dilemma. Which guy should a wonky political babe like me watch? I chose to watch Huntsman live on TV; Rocky was broadcast on the city’s cable access channel 17 but I skipped it. (The Utah Utes played and BEAT nationally ranked Air Force last night. The televised game bumped up against the mayor. I have my priorities.)
So today, Wright is thumping on Anderson for his long-winded, esoteric 100-MINUTE speech that touched on everything from global warming and renewable resources to the Iraq War and America’s powerless to a $4.7-million facelift for downtown’s Pioneer Park.
The guv, on the other hand, is getting slathered with sloppy wet kisses for a speech that quite honestly, was a tired rehash of his 2007 budget presentation from last month. Huntsman was standing against a blue curtain and a state seal at the Utah National Guard Air Base at the Salt Lake airport. Can’t fault the guy for taking the message to the home of the troops, but come on. A metal airplane hangar? All that was missing was the echo and rumble of the heating system.
Plus, Huntsman came across as a little bored. I know better. He’s making a pitch for 18.2 percent in new education funding, which includes $25 million for a one-time teacher signing bonus. So, it isn’t like he had nothing to pump his fist about and turn cartwheels. (Though it always amazes me that because our school system receives such piddly funding–and has historically–that even a smidgen of extra political support comes across like the delivery of manna from heaven.)
I like all the “state of” political speeches that go long on drama and passion. These are speeches about vision, after all. You didn’t get it from Huntsman last night. The guy might as well have been conducting a shareholder’s meeting at his family’s Huntsman Chemical headquarters. ZZZZ…
The thing is, I like Huntsman. I’m this blazing liberal and I stick out in this state like a ragged, bleeding cuticle on a baby’s pinkie finger. But, given Utah’s rush to Republicanism in every election, the man is the best moderate we could hope for. He knows something of human suffering. His budget this year includes a commitment to restoring funding to the poorest of Medicaid clients and $4 million for the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIPS), which will lift a cap from the program and allow for many more enrollees.
I just wish the guy would have pumped it up a bit. Maybe with a little less wacky-wacky than Rocky, but with the same sense of um…urgency? Delight? Ooomph?