Malloy faces his own “Sputnik Moment”

Governor Dannel Malloy jets back from D.C. after taking in the President’s State of the Union address.


President Obama appealed to Congressmen and Senators to heed their better angels and move forward in unity. He made the obligatory call for the nation to throw off the shackle of foreign oil dependency which every president since Nixon feels the need to make and then apparently, immediately forget. There was a call to freeze domestic spending and offers of dubious savings measures like tax increases on oil and gas companies. By the way, he offered that same thing to a Democrat-led Congress last year and was ignored.

On the other hand, the President talked about redoubling our efforts at putting money into things like roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives. Hmmm, how do you freeze something and redouble it simultaneously? I’m sure it’s a pretty neat trick to watch if one can pull it off.

And when calling for job-creating investments in biomedical research, information technology, and clean energy technology The President harkened back to the space race touched off by the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Satellite.

All in all, the President’s speech was like a fluffernutter sandwich, a decent flavor but not much there. But hey, he looked good serving it right?

Connecticut faces an ocean of red deficit ink, a school system that is failing far too many of our children and a jobs outlook that is shaky at best. Our beloved state has to negotiate an economic minefield in order to get back on the right track and this Governor must lead the way.

If Governor Dannel Malloy’s February budget address is as devoid of real substance and real solutions as this SOTU address, I hope that he at least picked up some pointers on delivery style from the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.