This morning, I heard a radio spot from the Gibbons 2010 campaign. Being in advertising, I'm used to hearing things on the air that bend the truth or suspend disbelief. I've written a few. All the great tropes are there: he held back spending, he didn't raise taxes, he loves the rural parts of the state and he's a War Hero™. These are all things that would make a cool campaign ad, if Nevada wasn't the most economically stressed (scroll for it, it's awesome) state in the country.
And, if our education system was performing well (hint: it's not), good for you, Jimbo. Go ahead and run that cheerleading piece of joy.
I wanted to hear the spot again, or the other three that the locals have been talking about. They were supposed to be on the website devoted to his reelection bid. Since they're not there, maybe I was hearing things.
One thing I know: I'm not seeing the same Nevada Jim Gibbons is. But the answer to that, too, may be in his slogan:
A Real Governor for a Real Nevada.
Oh! He's talking about the real Nevada. Not the one my family, friends and I actually live and work in. The one with a 13.6% unemployment rate. The one with a foreclosure rate at 3.5 times the national average. The one where I was exceedingly lucky to keep my job, even if it meant a salary and benefits cut. Not the Nevada where I send my child to school (the one that grants the lowest rate of high school diplomas and has the second-lowest rate of kids going to post-secondary schools). That Nevada is too icky to be real.
Which is why that Nevada doesn't have a governor.
If the spots turn up, I'll post them. But if you want to know what they say, just give the state a good, hard look and imagine the opposite. That'll get you there.
Real Nevada must be really nice. I hope I can live there someday.
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