THE DAY AFTER Governor Kasich's unscripted State of the State speech in Steubenville, he drew satirical national attention that couldn't possibly have burnished the state's political brand.It was reported by the Huffington Post, sort of awestricken, that a governor would make so many juvenile references in what should have been a serious accounting of his plans for the Buckeye state.
It noted that he had referred to his "hot wife" and described Californians as "a bunch of wackadoodles". (That immediately drew a protest from some of our family members out there. As far as wackadoodles are concerned, I insisted it takes one to know one.)
Oh, he awarded three Governor's Courage Awards but warned the recipients that he didn't want to see the pieces on eBay.
HuffPo's accounts summed up his odd oration:
"During the address, Kasich imitated a Parkinson's patient [simulating the movements], cried, insulted the people of California, praised his "hot wife," gave 14 shout-outs to the same person and played an awards show host while tearfully channeling a famously emotional fellow Ohio Republican House Speaker John Boehner."
The multiple shout-outs were to Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, a buddy-buddy deal in which Gee practically serves as a member of Kasich's cabinet.
Kasich repeatedly praised him, HuffPo reported, for leading the way on medical research, higher education and clean coal research. "God bless you, Gordon," the governor effused.
I nearly referred to Kasich's antics as The Comedy Hour. But then I remembered that it ran this way and that for more than 90 minutes.
When your public disapproval rating is as low as his, I guess you have to find other ways to amuse your audience.
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2 comments:
One could reasonably surmise that, given the governor's campaign to marginalize and diminish the role of government in managing public policy and the needs of ordinary people (as opposed to the interests of Wall Street and self-sufficient millionaires), he had nothing better to say in his State of the State than an incantation of sophomoric aphorisms, lame jokes and insubstantial maunderings.
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