Voters to Obama: ‘Shove It’ By John DePetro
Friday, November 05, 2010
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7 FM, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com
What a difference eight days can make. Frank Caprio may have uttered those now infamous two words to me on the WPRO morning news about a week too early. Some think it may have cost him the election. Results across the nation would indicate Caprio was reflecting many Americans’ sentiments when he told Obama to “shove it.”
In other states, voters went to the polls and sure created “change.” Definitely not the kind of change the White House had in mind though, by changing the Speaker of the U.S. House (Pelosi to Boehner) and shrinking the Democrat margins in the U.S. Senate.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTYou can bet things are going to change for that controversial health care legislation, ineffective stimulus spending and a whole lot of other Obama initiatives. But in typical Rhode Island “last to get the memo” fashion, Rhode Island voters went their own strange way and voted for their own tax increases.
The Rhode Island voter idea of “change” is maybe use a different polling place on election day to vote for the same people. Ok. So where do we go from here? Linc Chafee is the new Governor and deserves a fair chance to govern, fine. But seeing Bob Walsh, George Nee, and the cast of union hacks giddily cheering at Chafee headquarters on election night is the picture Rhode Islanders better get used to since it seems they did not grasp that prior to the Election. Too bad the mayor of Central Falls is under investigation for corruption since it would seem by the standards here, he could have run for higher office and prevailed. Why not?
As for the disappointing returns in the races for General Assembly, since there was little turnover, expect more of the same. The Rhode Island voter reminds me of the scene in “Dumb and Dumber,” where Jim Carey’s character drives 1,000 miles in the wrong direction.
How can a state with the 3 rd highest unemployment, already high taxes, deteriorating roads and public buildings think that putting the same people back into office will change anything?
Hold on folks, the next few years could be a very rough ride. It is so strange that a state full of people who love to gamble at Foxwoods, are afraid to gamble at the ballot box. The voters across the country heard Frank Caprio loud and clear but in Rhode Island voters thought they heard “love it” instead of “shove it.”
Perhaps our one contribution to the concept of change could be in a revision to the state motto: instead of “RI, the Ocean State” we could just be called “Gilligan’s Island.” A lost group of “castaways”—repeatedly devising ways to escape, with no success, could be what is left here—as the unions collectively bargain us into extinction.
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7 FM, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com
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