Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Nuvo's Year In Review

Nuvo's "Year In Review" edition hit newstands today. Laura McPhee spotlights Major Moves, state privatization, State House prayers, Indy's clean water improvements, Indy's rising crime rate, and daylight savings time, among other issues in her year-end wrap up.

This issue also reviews Gov. Mitch Daniels' past year as seen by radio talk show host Abdul Hakim-Shabazz and AI Editor Gary R. Welsh. My column is tagged, "Our Man Mitch: To be or not to be." Laura McPhee invited me to write the column a few weeks back--an offer I gladly accepted. The most difficult part of writing the column was figuring out how to limit it to just 750 words. There is so much that can be written about Gov. Daniels because he says and does so much more than any recent Indiana Governor.

While my column is pointedly critical of the Governor on several points, it is my hope it will be taken as constructive criticism. I remain convinced that Gov. Daniels has a lot of good ideas and can lead our state in the right direction, but I remain adamant in my conviction that he needs to learn to be a better listener. He needs to reach out to a much broader audience than the yes-men/women with whom he's surrounded himself.

Abdul views Gov. Daniels as "a badly needed kick in the rear-end", who has "dragged [the state] screaming into the 21st century." Abdul also thinks opinions of Daniels vary depending on whether you live in a big or small town, with the latter being more likely to view Daniels as the "anti-Christ." I think that he's probably right on both points.

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