By The Beachwood State Desk
Usually we wouldn’t post a politician’s press release here unless we were being ironic. In this case, though, the Dan Hynes campaign has hit the nail that is Pat Quinn on the head. So with just a little enhancement on our part – namely, providing links – we’ll make an exception.
From The Dan Hynes Campaign
Early reviews are in and already political analysts in Illinois are taking Governor Quinn to task for a “rambling” speech that was “short on substance.” Instead of focusing on his solutions to fixing the state’s numerous problems, Governor Quinn missed yet another opportunity to lead.
Among the early assessments:
* ” . . . there were no new ideas and little vision.” – Rich Miller, Capitol Fax Blog
* “Illinois is in the middle of a massive budget crisis, but you wouldn’t know it from the first 45 minutes of Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State address. Quinn delayed talking about the no-easy-answers topic of the budget until near the end of his speech, after such vital topics as the fact that he was once named ‘Mr. Soybean’ by a state association.” – Deanna Bellandi, Associated Press
* “I was quite surprised by the rambling quality – the use of so many of his verbal tics (‘The Land of Lincoln’ ‘the people’) . . . But we’re in serious trouble in serious times here in Illinois, and the moment called for a serious, focused address.” – Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune
* “The State of the State is disastrous. What’s Quinn going to do about it? We’ve gone over and over our notes, and we can’t find it.” – Chicago Tribune Editorial Page
* ” . . . this was a speech that was long on sentiment but short on substance.” – Ben Bradley, ABC 7 Chicago
* “It’s always the devil’s in the details, and no, there weren’t a lot of details.” – Democratic State Representative Keith Farnham to Chicago Public Radio
* “It was long, an hour and twenty minutes, rambling . . . ” – Mary Ann Ahern, NBC 5 Chicago
* “State of the State is – Long” – Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald
* “Governor Pat Quinn says Illinois faces a financial calamity but offered no details on the budget cuts or tax increases he thinks will be necessary to solve the problem.” – Lourdes Duarte, WGN News
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Clocking in at approximately 73 minutes, according to John Patterson of the Daily Herald, Quinn’s loquacious speech to the Illinois General Assembly dwarfed most recent Presidents’ longest State of the Union addresses (according to the University of California – Santa Barbara).
1. Bill Clinton, 2000: 88:49
2. Pat Quinn, 2009: Approximately 73
3. George W. Bush, 2003: 59:35
4. Barack Obama, 2009: 51:44
5. George H.W. Bush, 1992: 51:04
6. Gerald Ford, 1976: 50:38
7. Jimmy Carter, 1978: 46:04
8. Ronald Reagan, 1983: Approximately 46
9. Richard Nixon, 1974: 42:51
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Comments welcome.
Posted on January 14, 2010