I think I officially have a crush on Jerry Brown. What chief executive on earth in an address to the combined legislature of his state would hand out playing cards featuring his dog?
The various playing cards have a picture of his dog on one side, with cute doggy sayings about budget restraint. The other side of each card has this graphic, showing the boom and bust cycles that Brown is determined to handle differently from now on.
The thing I have come to appreciate about Brown is this attitude that says “This is me, take me or leave me. Who cares about that. We have a massive task before us. Now, are you going to help or what?”
I suspect this attitude comes from having been governor years ago, when he learned the hard way that governing is not an aspiration for the faint of heart. Now, as the state’s oldest governor, he has nothing left to prove. He has come back to the governorship to get a job done and serve the interests of the state.
This year’s state of the state address is not as philosophical as last year’s. It is mostly a checklist of the huge issues still facing us.
This year he left the most of the philosophizing to the dog.
FiscalShare 