Another Day with Paul LePage

Our governor following the Donald Trump any publicity is good publicity theorem made another headline today. At a speech yesterday after being heckled by being told " to tax the rich people" he advised he would love to if Maine had any rich people"

As with most of LePage's statements if it was the only gaffe he had made it would not be that big a deal. However LePage now is on the one a day plan.

Maine's per capita income is lower than most states. This is a true statement. However to use that as the basis that there are no rich folks in Maine would mean that there are no rich people in the country as a whole as the per capita income for the nation is not indicative of rich people either.

LePage's statement is wrong and worse flippant. For those people who are struggling in this state, and there are many, to say there are no rich people makes them feel like LePage has no concept of their struggles. Now we can argue about what the definition of rich is. Is it 100 K a year, 250 K a year or a different amount. In Maine it costs less to live so money goes further but that too depends on where you live in the state.

In Bangor there are plenty of wealthy people. I think my son is friends with all their kids and believe me we suffer in comparison to them financially. I am sure it is the same in all towns across the state. For LePage to answer that there are no rich people shows a lack of seriousness , a lack of knowledge, or a lack of caring. I still hold the belief that LePage is not a bad man. I do not believe his intent is evil or even unkind. I do believe that he has no filter and feels like winning an election means that he has a mandate. He has a 39 percent mandate.

What should he have said. Perhaps he could have said I do not believe we can tax ourselves out of our problems on rich people or anyone else. I would like for their to be more rich people and I believe my ideas will help us accomplish that goal. He would be wrong in his answer but he would not appear so callous, flippant and frankly stupid. I do not like saying that, I do not believe in making personal criticisms and I do not believe the governor is stupid. I do believe his actions are not reflecting his goodness.

I do not and doubt I will agree with the Governor in his policies. This does not mean I want him to fail. What I mostly desire is to be able to say that agree with him or not I think the Governor does believe what he says and is a caring person trying to accomplish things for everybody. If this is the case and I still hope it is I hope and wish he can learn that speaking off the cuff is not a strength and he is embarrassing himself and our state.

For a Governor stating of his desire to bring jobs to Maine he is not doing anything that makes us stand out for the right reasons.

Hey Governor when in doubt Don't. In your case just be quiet.