A keynote address by the sitting governor is a December ritual at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy participated in tradition this morning when he addressed a packed ballroom over breakfast at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell.
But unlike his predecessors, John Rowland and M. Jodi Rell, who used the occasion to deliver a lighthearted address or a poem poking fun at the state’s political establishment, Malloy offered up a serious speech steeped in public policy and light on laughs.
“I don’t do poems,” Malloy told reporters after the speech (this, despite his fondness for quoting Robert Frost.)
“I don’t do humor well,” he added.
In the governor’s view, the chance to spread his message to hundreds of business and community leaders is too great an opportunity to squander on jokes.
”You get a chance to communicate with well over a thousand business leaders in the state. To waste it by devoting a speech to humor or anything else is just that, a wasted opportunity,” Malloy said. “People need to understand where we’re trying to take the state so I exercise those opportunities to share a vision and a mission and the progress as well as the areas we’re slow on. This is an opportunity.”
So instead of jokes, the breakfast crowd got meat-and-potatoes. Malloy spent about 20 minutes highlighting his key initiatives, including an education overhaul and investments in bioscience and digital media.
And he presented a sobering review of the challenges he inherited and the choices he made during his first two years in office.
“Yes, we had to go out and raise revenue and cut services and shrink the size of government and we have done all of that and we will do more because it is not yet enough,” Malloy said.
“But let me assure you, as I stand before you today, looking at a deficit that is one-tenth of what it was two years ago, I know that we’re making progress,” he said.
“Let me assure you, that doing some of the things that we did to get our fiscal house in order well beyond simply saying that we’re going to comply by standards that should have been applied to the state of Connecticut for many years, that in reaching agreements we have saved the state $21 and a half billion over the next 20 years in benefits that other administrations have refused to pay for.”
But ultimately, Malloy’s message was one of optimism. He cited the example of William E. Currlin, a veteran who was honored at the breakfast for his service.
”It’s become popular…to be depressed and to believe your best days are behind you. But the man who was honored here today for his public service in the military and his desire to return to this state to give additional service [underscores] first and foremost: we are Americans. We believe in the future and beyond that, we seize the future and make it our own.”
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8 Responses to Malloy To Chamber: I Don’t Do Humor Well
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Why is it Democrats only spend while not trimming the budgets. I see Californians are moving to Texas in droves to escape the Liberal BS that is happening there. Connecticut folks will most likely do the same- because of Liberal politics and zany government policies.
Yes. But also realize that liberals are also part of moving to red states and it is important to keep what is red, red. Look no further than New Hampshire. Once a conservative beacon in New England, the dems now hold the tri-fecta there:house,senate,and governorship. I have a relative in NH and he is seeing all the Mass -holes moving in, fleeing from their failed social policies in MA. It is imperative that red states actually identify lefties moving in and embrace them, but with THEIR political beliefs: confiscate their guns, levy high property,healthcare,sales,income,gas,etc taxes on them.have two seperate gas pumps: if your a leftie you pay $7/gallon and if your a rightie you pay a $1.50. Let them subsidize us,because this is what we are doing here.Basically give them a dose of their own medicine because in time, they will wreck the state to which they are moving to.
I see the point, but Liberals are not risk takers and are not willing sacrifice their free stuff by moving. The movement west in the 1800′s is a good example.
Lee, you need to differentiate between the liberals who benefit from the liberal policies (the recipients), and the liberals who continue to vote for and support feel-good liberal policies but also work and pay taxes.
The recipients only move to other states where they can continue to receive freebies.
The liberals who pay taxes eventually move to red states because they are sick and tired of being taxed to death by the very policies they have helped to put in place. There is a huge disconnect and failure to recognize the consequences of their actions.
The liberal question ‘Why doesn’t the government do something about this?’ affects us all. Some of us are capable of seeing the larger picture and the end result of such a mindset.
Conn-servative: I absolutely LOVE your proposal to force people to be responsible for the beliefs and actions (especially their voting choices) by making them pay more for their choices.
Not good at humor? I’m laughing my butt off at this (and crying at the same time):
“People need to understand where we’re trying to take the state so I exercise those opportunities to share a vision and a mission and the progress as well as the areas we’re slow on. This is an opportunity.”
So instead of jokes, the breakfast crowd got meat-and-potatoes. Malloy spent about 20 minutes highlighting his key initiatives, including an education overhaul and investments in bioscience and digital media.”
The obvious questions:
1. ‘Education overhaul’ euals what? More hours for teachers = increase in money to education budget? We already know that that doesn’t translate to increased services to students.
2. ‘Investment in bioscience and digital media’: We all know that ‘investment’ means spending and spending means even more taxpayer money down the tube.
So I guess maybe we DO understand ‘where we’re trying to take the state’ after this speech: Increase in government spending and the size of government. Feel better? I certainly don’t
Too funny, Dannel. Too funny.
Here’s a guy who shunned and ridiculed Republicans in the the development of his budget and didn’t include them in ANY of the talks except as passive outside-looking-in observers. Just like Obama. (Virtually everything Obama does, Malloy slavishly imitates.)
Now, he’s in trouble after botching his celebrated deal with state employees and he’s asked the Republcans to come to the table to help the Democrats craft a deficit remediation package. Let’s be clear: Malloy and the Dem’s don’t really want their ideas, they want their ideas and votes for political cover.
Watch this play out. The R’s will be thrown a bone or two in the talks and then it will be duly noted when the votes come in the all of the cuts came from those nasty ol’ Republicans.
Meanwhile, this is all playing out as Malloy goes home each night and sits by the phone, waiting for “The Call” from the White House. [Image of Malloy staring at silent phone.]
Leaving CT can’t happen soon enough. That goes for Malloy and the citizens of CT.
What a charade.
My question is this: Our honest, balanced budget was based in part on $ 180 million in savings from Union suggestion boxes. Perhaps an ambitious reporter might want to let our taxpayers just how these boxes worked out ? Come on, here’s a story.