|
"If we want to preserve the Oregon promise, we're going to have to invest," he said on Jan. 19, 1996, before the Portland City Club. "Not spend. Invest. In transportation, infrastructure and education." He went on to offer detailed proposals. Flash forward two years to Friday, Jan. 16, when the governor delivered his 1998 State of the State address, again before the Portland City Club. Instead of passion, there was torpor. Instead of commitment, there was nonchalance. Instead of specifics, there were vague generalities. Here are some excerpts: "We need to create some appropriate forum for regions to plan appropriately for growth." "I have started an extensive series of meetings...to find ways to help people get involved with their schools. I am looking for programs and strategies that have worked." "I will make the support of community-based juvenile crime prevention my top priority." These are hardly the words of a leader. After hearing them, we can understand why the Bend Bulletin has taken to calling Kitzhaber "Governor Cautious." It's not as if the challenges Kitzhaber outlined two years ago have been met. Oregon still has serious transportation needs. We still have a higher-education system with among the lowest-paid professors and the highest tuition anywhere in the West. And Kitzhaber's longstanding desire to ask employers to offer health-care coverage to employees is still that--a desire. Plenty of new issues have emerged as well. Chief among them are the state's tax structure and further reform of K-12 education--issues the governor has championed in the past but failed to mention in this speech. To be fair, Kitzhaber did say he would dedicate himself to restoring the health of the Willamette River. But mostly the speech lacked the determination he has often claimed to admire. Afterwards, one of the governor's fellow democratic officeholders recalled Mencken's quote about "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea." The most likely explanation for the softness of Kitzhaber's rhetoric is not the recent birth of his son but rather the prospect of real competition should he, as expected, seek re-election. The governor and his aides may think that the way to beat their presumptive Republican challenger, Bill Sizemore, is to lay low and propose nothing that the tax-cutting activist can swat down. We disagree. Boldness, not timidity, will best serve Oregonians and the governor. Just two years ago, Kitzhaber seemed to understand that: He credited the prosperity of today with the "vision, planning, commitment and investments that have happened over the past 20 years." Governor, we could use a healthy dose of that sort of medicine right now. |
