JLT Takes A Simple Question, Swings Hard and Misses
The Howey Political Report reports on an interview Jill Long (shot) Thompson gave to the media recently. One question
happened to stick out though and it was the very first one.
-Q- Matt Tully, Indianapolis Star: Do you favor raising sales or income taxes to solve the property tax problem?
Matt Tully. Decent reporter, decent guy, decent question. It’s fair and it’s by no means a soft ball since this particular question is a big deal in the General Assembly right now. JLT’s response?
-A- Thompson: I think too often the discussion is you can take it over here and put it over here. You take it from property taxes to sales taxes and income taxes. I think those are the wrong questions. The right question is what is the best tax program we can have that works for families, that works for homeowners, that works for Hoosiers, and also works for business and helps businesses make decisions that not only are good for that business, but also for growing the state’s economy.
To quote a friend of mine who emailed me today about this: “Um, duh Jill, you are the candidate. You’re supposed to offer answers, not questions.”
I’ve found that the Democrats this year, whether running for President or running for Governor, respond to questions, not with ideas, but rephrasing the question to throw it back at the media to oooh and ahhhh over.
As it stands, these yahoos who call themselves Democrat contenders for Governor keep on throwing out tripe that passes around as ideas in some circles, but are empty and void of any substance. This should scare Democrats at 1 North Capitol as Mitch continues to travel around the state touting his property tax plan. When the Democrat candidates for governor can’t even come up with an answer to which tax would they prefer to raise to help offset property taxes, you know they’re chances are shot!
By the way, just in case you missed it, the numbers of a Mitch vs. JLT matchup are in. Check them out below the fold.
An American Viewpoint poll; conducted 1/16-17 for Gov. Mitch Daniels (R); surveyed 800 LVs; margin of error +/- TKTK% (release, 1/24). Tested: Daniels and ex-Rep. Jill Long Thompson (D).
General Election Matchup
Now
M. Daniels 53%
J. Long Thompson 34%
Daniels As Gov.
Approve 56%
Disapprove 39
Fav/Unfav
M. Daniels 57%/37%
More people are starting to realize, even Democrat voters around the state, what a good job Mitch Daniels has done as Governor. I know I’ve had my disagreement from time to time with him, but I can’t argue with the overall progress he has made with Indiana in four short years.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Josh, I read that interview and thought that Jill failed to give a single answer in the entire interview. It says very little for the Democrats that they have nothing better to offer.
Who knows, maybe The Hair will still jump in the race. That would be fun.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
By the way–thanks for the author line in the title on the full article page.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Jill, I hear that you have a Ph.D. in business, why is it then that you can’t answer that question with at least your thoughts on which is the lesser of the two evils (any tax increase is something of an evil, at least to a conservative. The key is to have any tax increases off-set but other tax cuts resulting in a NET tax decrease).