Losing Round One
2011-06-15 - by
When I fled the country just before Memorial Day, Governor Perdue had the upper hand in her PR battle with the GOP over the budget. But she lost it.
She lost the battle – at least in the short term – because she couldn’t get the votes to sustain her veto. In politics, like sports, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. Winners pass budgets; losers bemoan and bewail.
Some Democrats ask why she lost five Democratic House members. One asked me: “Would John A. Williams (Governor Hunt’s legendary enforcer) have let that happen?”
Put it this way, the Gang of Five would have either seen the light or felt the heat.
But all politicians have their price, and the five exacted theirs.
Now, the Governor has to step up her game. She let the Republicans successfully minimize the differences between their education cuts and hers. She relied on generalities and rhetoric, not cold facts, as in: “It (the budget) will cause generational damage to this state.”
Her challenge now is to put this battle behind her and win the war ahead. She has to persuade the public – with specifics – that her warnings are true and that the state can’t afford to stay on the legislature’s track. And Public Policy Polling suggests people are open to that argument.
Her revenge must be winning reelection, restoring a Democratic majority in at least one chamber or, at least, get a reliable veto-sustaining minority.
And, when she’s asked about her loss, her answer should be: “It doesn’t matter whether I lost. What matters is that the state lost.”
Losing Round One
2011-06-15/
When I fled the country just before Memorial Day, Governor Perdue had the upper hand in her PR battle with the GOP over the budget. But she lost it.
She lost the battle – at least in the short term – because she couldn’t get the votes to sustain her veto. In politics, like sports, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. Winners pass budgets; losers bemoan and bewail.
Some Democrats ask why she lost five Democratic House members. One asked me: “Would John A. Williams (Governor Hunt’s legendary enforcer) have let that happen?”
Put it this way, the Gang of Five would have either seen the light or felt the heat.
But all politicians have their price, and the five exacted theirs.
Now, the Governor has to step up her game. She let the Republicans successfully minimize the differences between their education cuts and hers. She relied on generalities and rhetoric, not cold facts, as in: “It (the budget) will cause generational damage to this state.”
Her challenge now is to put this battle behind her and win the war ahead. She has to persuade the public – with specifics – that her warnings are true and that the state can’t afford to stay on the legislature’s track. And Public Policy Polling suggests people are open to that argument.
Her revenge must be winning reelection, restoring a Democratic majority in at least one chamber or, at least, get a reliable veto-sustaining minority.
And, when she’s asked about her loss, her answer should be: “It doesn’t matter whether I lost. What matters is that the state lost.”