Our first winter storm of the year is here. Stay updated at https://t.co/WkEYkiuUhN. @NJDOT_Info and local roads crews are working to clear roadways. Check https://t.co/8u09EBAR1n for traffic updates on your particular route. pic.twitter.com/ptQYBPpxD6— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) November 15, 2018
My father hasn't been around for decades.
But yesterday, as New Jersey faced a weather calamity, I heard him saying: "Collect the trash, clear the roads and keep the taxes low."
That was what he told every politician who was running for office. My father understood the basics. If you do these three things, he said, you were likely to be be successful. If not, you could be out of a job.
Of course, the more local the office, the more these things apply. But state and even federal government officials also share responsibility for taxes, roads and public sanitation.
On taxes, it's already clear that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has failed. The guy never met a tax he doesn't like and, for the moment he assumed office, he's been busy raising taxes in one of America's highest taxed states. Yesterday, he also failed miserably when it came to clearing the roads. Though he took to facebook to issue warnings and then tried to blame everyone but himself for the traffic and transportation calamity, Governor Murphy was basically MIA -- Missing In Action!
And in a state with so many inter-county state roads, that's
In his facebook post the Governor began with the words "comin atcha" but he wasn't coming at us at all -- not live, on the ground with the people of New Jersey. Not that way.
Instead, he was actually bragging win himself at the New Jersey League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City and them pretending to be on the job at a "transportation hob" somewhere.
Murphy says nobody had any idea how bad the storm would be and he blames the weather forecasters for what happened. But more than a few forecasters warned that there was at least some chance that the storm could build, exceed predictions and turn very nasty. And they cautioned against taking it lightly.
Here's what a real governor is supposed to do: prepare for the absolute worst; expect the worst and be ready. If the worst doesn't happen, then you're off the hook. But if it does, you rise to the occasion.
Murphy didn't do that.
He was cavalier.
This guy is facing increasing criticism in his own party; he's already had a couple of scandals pop up within his own administration over questionable hiring practices; his tax and budgetary policies don't add up and he spends a lot of time engaging in identity politics and trying to be some kind of social justice warrior.
Face it: He doesn't seem to understand New Jersey.
And he apparently has neither the desire nor ability to understand the state or what it means to govern the state. We fear his focus is elsewhere.
Bottom line: He comes off as a thinly disguised wannabe who's just not up to the job.
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