Rory’s Next Step
Monday’s radio and blog sturm und drang seems not to have dissuaded Mr. Smith from the road to Providence. This just in:
Today Rory Smith filed a “Notice of Organization” with the Rhode Island Board of Elections, forming a candidate committee in order to begin the process of organizing a campaign for Governor.
“We need to put Rhode Islanders back to work. We cannot continue with business as usual in state government and expect to fix the problems we face. It is time for fresh ideas and a new perspective. I want to be that new voice,” said Smith.
Smith, a founding partner of Providence based business Nautic Partners LLC, is a first time candidate for public office.
“I’ve spent my career providing businesses with the capital, tools, and leadership required to grow and prosper even through difficult economic times. I want to use that experience to help grow Rhode Island’s economy and create jobs,” continued Smith.
The father of three, Smith cares deeply about the future of Rhode Island. He and his wife Betsy are very involved in their community through their church, youth sports, and local charities.
“I love Rhode Island. It is a great place to live and raise a family. I want to work to make sure that Rhode Island is a place that my children can get a first-class education, find a good job, and raise children of their own,” concluded Smith.
Oh great, is Dan Yorke is going to blow another gasket on the air now?
This is a dark day for Laffey campaign manager No Show Joe the barber Muschiano who was whining to Dan Yorke just yesterday about Rory Smith running for Governor. Isn’t it weird that a Dem party operative with a messy past like No show Joe would be a confidant of Steve reformer Laffey? lol
Great…another rich guy who has no idea how things work in the real world of the middle class.
“Great…another rich guy who has no idea how things work in the real world of the middle class.”
Great, another dumb liberal who knows how to attack the man and not the ideas.
I just want to know if he has a capacity for honesty. We haven’t had that in a governor in a long while.
OK, not much there to measure in terms of honesty. Not much there in terms of anything actually.
He didn’t really say anything. Given a second chance to show some substance; he came up empty.
One thing that he didn’t say, I was pleasantly surprised…he didn’t say the Governor is doing a good job.
“The list is coming Patrick, you’re not going to like it, but you’re gonna get what you asked for.
Posted by George at October 20, 2009 12:00 PM”
Still waiting….zzzzzzzz.
Patrick, what’s your hurry. Want to pass it on to Rory?
I’m in no hurry. Others have pressed me for the same. Timing’s everything.
A lesson Rory should have learned today.
Gotcha, stall, stall, stall, hope they forget, as someone quickly realizes his mouth was writing checks he can’t cash.
If it’s so obvious just throw over a couple, right off the top of your head. Go for it. If you can’t, then you probably owe a few of us an apology for your spouting.
Credibility’s slipping here George…
All right, I’ll bite. Here’s just a few to hold you over.
1. He pledged to create 20,000 jobs. He’s done nothing. He claimed to have created 15,000. That was a lie. Unemployment has been on a rise since his first term in office, when the economy was booming and just about every other state in the country was growing.
2. He’s been going around the state talking about a $68 million shortfall he has to fill. The real problem is north of a half-a-billion and he doesn’t have the courage to talk about it. He has no solution and evidently neither does Mr. Carcieri-Smith.
3. He used Federal stimulus money, not to off-set, not to replace spending… but to INCREASE the budget.
4. He claims he’s not raising taxes, but he’s allowed every fee imaginable to go up and he’s allowed a host of new fees.
5. Went around grandstanding about a furlough. Didn’t follow through.
Go ahead, blame the legislature. But Carcieri doesn’t even put up a fight. We need a fighter, or we are seriously doomed.
I’m far from finished by the way.
Nice try, but wrong. I asked what a “leader” could have done differently. You just picked out things that you believe he did wrong. What would a “leader” have done differently in the same situation? In the situation where you can veto anything you want, but everything will simply get overturned?
What should Don Carcieri have done differently that would have had a positive impact on RI, George? Examples, please. Not strawmen.
I’ll take Blame The Legislature for $200 George.
Fighting never worked but putting forth some paperwork from RIPEC, the EDC and his panel of experts surely didn’t work.
Could it be because they all went to the LEGISLATURE for approval?
In all of those cases, and others I haven’t mentioned, a leader would have fought for the people. He would have made sure they knew the truth instead of trying to hide it.
And that, Patrick, is my point. You cannot, after nearly two full terms in office blame the legislature for all you have failed to do. I fully agree with you that the legislature, particularly the Speaker and the majority leadership hold tremendous power in RI. But Donald Carcieri has done nothing to expose them to the people. He’s done nothing to hold their feet to the fire. He has not fought for us and he has not been truthful about the budget, nor about the real depth of the problems the state is facing.
If I may comment on one thing. I think the governor hasn’t gotten the word out to the average voter, but I don’t see it as his fault. As an example, this last budget, he was on the radio and quoted as saying that he didn’t agree with it but because a veto would cost the state millions it didn’t have, he signed it. Now the problem is that a large portion of voters aren’t listening to the radio or reading the paper. Most people are uninformed. As the state crumbles they figure he signed it, it’s his fault. No idea how that budget came to be or who were the key authors.
That said, if the Gov were to increase the effort to hold the GA’s feet to the fire, the left would disagree with his points, the right would nod in agreement and the remaining 60% or so would be oblivious to the effort.
If you want to educate yourself, you know who is to blame and who is at fault.
See, I can agree with criticism of Don Carcieri and I think Steve hits the nail on the head. That office doesn’t get the word out enough about what’s going on and what they’re trying to do. I do understand that if Carcieri started spilling inside secrets on the whole thing that he’d then have zero relationship with the Assembly leadership, and I guess they do work together on some things, but there is a lot that goes on that we should have a brighter light shined on. I’d say 90% of the voters have no idea what goes on. Try this for a little test, ask a few people today who their local state rep and senator is. Ask who their town councilor is. I bet the great majority have no idea. If they don’t even know who they are, how can they intelligently vote on whether that person is fit for the job? As Dan Yorke has said many times, we have a dumb, dumb, dumb (and lazy) electorate.
Well, didn’t take long for Rory Smith to blow the honesty test. On WPRO’s John Depetro show this morning, Smith said “Like many Rhode Islanders, I have a cottage…in Warwick”
Pretty disengenuous to call this a “cottage”
http://www.warwickri.gov/assessors/assessorsaddr.php?searchbyaddress=38500390000
Completely out of touch with reality to say “like many Rhode Islanders” have.
I’m torn. On one hand, Rory’ got a raging sense of entitlement, but on the other, he’s not Phil Leotardo like the currently presiding CEO from EG.
And if it lessens the chance we’ll ever have to utter the words “Governor Laffey,” it’ all good.
Ooh, Rhody, them’s fightin’ words with George. No Laffey? You’re about to send him off the deep end. Don’t upset him and the “leader” that he wants in Laffey. Remember, Laffey can leap tall buildings in a single bound and make his veto sustained even when the other party outnumbers him by 60+ votes!
Rhody’s a Chafee guy, so how could I take anything he says seriously.
Who’s going off the deep end? You’re beginning to sound like those Chafee people who had complete cyber meltdowns on the blogs in ’06 because they were so conflicted in their attempts to defend the most indefensible creature in the history of politics.
Ha ha ha ha ha! First I’m “Patrick-from-the-Governor’s-office” and now I’m a “Chafee guy”. Which is it? They sure aren’t one in the same, George.
Still waiting on that list of yours, and not just things the Gov did wrong. I originally said that no Republican could have gotten anything done in the current RI political climate and you attacked me for that. I didn’t say the Governor was perfect and did nothing wrong. So tell me things that he could have gotten accomplished given the current political climate, George. Or were you a little quick to jump in the gun your attack on me? It’s one or the other. Either you were hasty in your attack or you have examples of things the Gov could have reasonably accomplished. Still waiting on that list.
Patrick, you’re losing it. Rhody’s an avowed Chafee guy. I didn’t say you were. I only compared you to others who have attempted to defend the indefensible. We agree 100 percent on the General Assembly’s role in this mess. But you can’t totally let the Governor off the hook. I criticize the Governor because he has not been a leader and he has not been what we desperately need in a Governor. I also want to emphasize that no one, not even the heir apparent Mr. Smith can get elected by defending this Governor and using the GA as a scapegoat. It just won’t work. The governor who fixes this mess will be the governor who is accountable to all people, who takes responsibility for all the states problems, who fights for the people and who leads. Otherwise, the cycle continues.