Anyone wanna dis on Governor Blanco at this point?
SaintJ - you make a good point. But it is too easy to comapre Blanco to what Louisiana has had in the past - and by that measure she is doing a whole lot more. That doesn;t mean we can't do better. But do you compare her to recent Louisana governors, or to recent Alabama/Mississippi/Arkansas/Texas governors?
I measure her against the standard of what needs to be done.
Getting $35k-$40k manufacturing jobs is certainly a good thing; and it's the kind of economic news that makes people in the region feel good today. I'm not knocking it. But the means of production are still owned by, and the profits and capital return flow out to, owners and management teams living outside the state.
Leadership (1) to reduce the size of government and the number of regulations, thereby shrinking the state's tradition of brib..., umm, bahksheesh.., umm, the need to hire significant local consultants to assist one through complicated local processes, (2) to undertake substantial tax reform across the board to encourage local entrepreneurship (if the homeowners don't pay, and the multinationals who can come in and cut a deal don't pay, just who DOES pay the taxes in Louisiana?) and (3) to improve the quality of primary, secondary and college education (just why DOES Louisiana need three different university systems? to maintain a proven track record of education-for-the-dollar superiority over other states?), are all critical to re-establish capital in the state, not just jobs, ownership, not just jobs, and entrepreneurship, not just jobs. Otherwise, you're a northern version of Oaxaca or Chihuahua. You might start with tort reform, property tax reform and business tax reform on a grand scale. If you eliminated all the unnecessary government jobs at the state and local level, you could probably afford all those tax cuts without utterly destroying money available for Medicaid, education and safety-net services.
Leaders in Pennsylvania, even Philadelphia for crissakes, have tried to focus on downtown revitalizations, getting the smart people to stay home and start businesses, invent things, create companies and free enterprise. They are, if slowly, even trying to cut taxes statewide, in various ways, especially those that affect businesses. There's only so much government can do, but Louisiana's sad Huey Long-populist heritage has it about 20 years behind the curve.
In Louisiana, claiming victory (or even improvement) by comparing current leaders to former leaders is like bragging that you've got the taller midget. And beating Mississippi and Alabama? Feh. The measuring stick needs to be the big Sun Belt growth states like Florida, Georgia, and Arizona.