The New York
Times January 16, 2015 DAVID
BROOKS
If the Republican
presidential campaign were ''American Idol'' or ''The Voice,'' this would be
the out-of-town auditions phase. Governors across the country are giving State
of the State addresses, unveiling their visions. Let's spin the chairs and
grade the contenders, to see who deserves a shot at the big show.
John Kasich:
A. The Ohio governor is easily the most underestimated Republican this year. He
just won a landslide victory in the swingiest of the swing states. He carried
86 of Ohio's 88 counties. He won Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, and
which President Obama won by 40 points in 2012.
Kasich is the
Republican version of Jerry Brown: experienced but undisciplined in an honest,
unvarnished way. If he shows he can raise money, and if voters want someone
fresh but seasoned and managerial, he might be the guy.
The inaugural
address he delivered on Monday was a straight-up values speech. But it wasn't
about values the way Pat Robertson used to define them. It was traditional
values expressed in inclusive, largely secular form. ''I think the erosion of
basic values that made our nation great is the most serious problem facing our
state and our nation today,'' he said. ''And I'm not talking about those
volatile issues.''
He built his
speech around empathy, resilience, responsibility and other virtues: ''You know
why this happened? Too fixated on ourselves. It's all about me. And somehow we
have lost the beautiful sound of our neighbors' voices. Moving beyond ourselves
and trying to share in the experience of others helps us open our minds, allows
us to grow as people. It helps us become less self-righteous. Did you ever find
that in yourself? I do ... self-righteous.''
Kasich has a
long conservative record, but in his speech he celebrated government workers,
like the woman who runs his job and family services department. He argued that
economic growth is not an end unto itself, especially when it's not widely
shared.
Kasich, a
working-class kid, spoke as a small government conservative who sometimes uses
government to advance Judeo-Christian values. His mantra is, ''When you die and
get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much
about what you did about keeping government small, but he is going to ask you
what you did for the poor.''
Chris
Christie: A-minus. Bridgegate did some damage, but it clearly wasn't fatal.
Whatever can be said about Christie, he grabs attention -- essential in a
crowded field.
Like all smart
Republicans in the post-Romney era (yes, we're in it), Christie is working hard
to prove he understands the everyday concerns of the poor and the middle class.
He spent a good chunk of his address describing his efforts to work with the
Democratic mayor of Camden to bring in jobs, fight poverty and reduce crime in
that city. It was a bipartisan, government-efficiency pitch: ''We terminated
the city police department and, partnering with the county, put a new metro
division on the streets with 400 officers for the same price we were paying for
260. ... What are the results? Murder down 51 percent, in what was once called
the most dangerous city in America.''
As Chris
Cillizza of The Washington Post noticed, Christie defined anxiety as America's
most daunting problem. He said that as he traveled the country, ''anxiety was
the most palpable emotion that I saw and felt. More than anger, more than fear.''
Christie hasn't quite nailed down the nature of that anxiety, or what to do
about it, but he's clearly hit on an essential theme for an era of economic
growth but dissatisfaction.
Scott Walker
and Mike Pence: B-plus. The Wisconsin and Indiana governors are both versions
of what used to be called working-class, Sam's Club Republicanism. Walker never
graduated from college.
In their State
of the State addresses, both boasted about the same sorts of accomplishments:
dropping unemployment rates, state surpluses, rising graduation rates, lower
taxes. Walker mentioned jobs programs for people with disabilities. Pence, who
has devoted more effort to fighting poverty, touted his new pre-K education
program. Both have good records, but neither speech had anything that was
narratively or thematically innovative or of much interest to people outside
their states.
At this stage
in the race it's best to evaluate candidates the way you evaluate pitchers
during the first week of spring training. Don't think about polls, donor gossip
or who has the front-runner label. Ask who makes the catcher's glove pop
loudest. Who has the stuff that makes you do a double take?
Among the
governors, Kasich and Christie have shown they can take the values of religious
conservatives and use them to inform Republican economic and domestic
priorities. That's essential if the party is going retain its business and
religious base and also reach the struggling and disaffected.
