Entitlement mentality or admiring the problem?

Posted at 10:56 PM on October 13, 2009 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

Gov. Pawlenty gave a thirty minute speech tonight to the Minnesota Business Partnership's annual dinner. Most of the speech was standard fare.

He warned about Minnesota's cost structure being higher than other states. He also tried to compare the fiscal and management problems that caused General Motors to fail to the problems in the federal government. Pawlenty also warned that Minnesotans should be careful not to get an "entitlement mentality."

You can listen to the full speech here:

Listen

Pawlenty did offer one news nugget. He suggested that school teachers should have to "re-earn" tenure every three years by meeting certain benchmarks in the classroom.

(I wanted to follow up with him but he ducked reporters after the speech.)

Not everyone was impressed with Pawlenty's speech. Some complained it was the same speech he's given at every Minnesota Business Partnership dinner. Others said it lacked applause lines.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who is mulling whether to run for governor in 2010, said Pawlenty shouldn't be criticizing a state that he's been in charge of for the past seven years.

"Minnesota is desperate right now to get government and business working together," Rybak said. "The problem is the governor does an exceptional job of admiring the problem but not a very good job of leading a solution to it."

Pawlenty is not running for a third term and is widely considered a potential candidate for president. (Side note, he's out of the state "building" the Republican Party for the rest of the week).

As Pawlenty ponders a possible presidential run, several candidates for governor were seen working the crowd.

GOP state Rep. Marty Seifert, GOP state Rep. Paul Kohls, DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and DFL state Sen. Tom Bakk were seen mingling with guests.

There were a few other possible candidates attending. GOP state Rep. Laura Brod said she'll let us know if she has something to announce.

MN Department of Labor Commissioner Steve Sviggum said he's not prepared to make an announcement either (Sviggum is bound by the Hatch Act so he can't keep his job and run for governor at the same time.).

MN Business Partnership executive director Charlie Weaver said he's "still thinking about" a run for governor. When asked when it's too late to get into the race, he replied "January."

Comments (3)

"Pawlenty shouldn't be criticizing a state he's been in charge of for the last seven years."

Ouch! That Ryback cracks me up. He's right about Pawlenty's remarks. It's as if Reagan, after governing California for years, had bawled out Californians for "failing to solve their problems themselves."

If Pawlenty doesn't like the people here and thinks they're hooked on "entitlement," why doesn't he just leave? Or get in the back seat and let somebody else drive for a little while, since he admits he could never handle this whole "government" thing.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | October 13, 2009 11:53 PM

The irony in the mayor's statements is that the DFL is making a spectacle about consulting people who have been in government for 30+ years on how to solve the problems that have crept into state government over the last 30+ years.

Posted by Kevin Watterson | October 14, 2009 6:42 AM

Nah, I don't think that's the irony.

The plain fact is that some leaders are more successful than others. In a representative democracy, a leader goes into the job knowing that he's going to have to work with a whole bunch of people that disagree with him and fight for different agendas.

The secret to leadership in that situation is figuring out how to get the necessary number of allies and opponents on your side, so you can realize your agenda and goals, and benefit the public. And on top of that--your agenda (the one you're fighting for) has to be right--has to be workable, and result in a public benefit like prosperity or national security.

Being a leader in a democracy means bringing along opponents as well as allies. It's not like being a dictator, where you just round up the opposition and imprison them or shoot them. Pawlenty's a failure as a leader, and he can't silence his critics--so instead Pawlenty and supporters do the next best thing and blame the critics for his failures. Pawlenty goes so far to avoid taking responsibility for his actions that he blames the people of Minnesota!

It's a riot, a howler, unless you're a conservative or a Republican. If that's the case, then you will probably buy this theory: the theory that TP can be a fine leader and presidential material, despite the fact that he's taking federal government aid, can't list any major achievements in office, wasn't interested in state infrastructure until a bridge collapses--and he and his fans are now running around telling people that the problem is they have a political opposition and a state full of Minnesotans who are hooked on "entitlement."

A lot of Republicans and conservatives *will* buy that argument, because they will accept failure and the blame game and moaning about the failings of the voters as a substitute for real leadership and results.

But it's funny to other Americans when GOP "leaders" like Pawlenty moan because they can't lead.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | October 14, 2009 8:10 AM

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