In Governor Corbett’s latest campaign ad, Governor Corbett tries to rebrand himself from this:
to this:
The only problem with the governor’s latest rebranding effort, the other “Tom,” Tom Wolf, is 4 months of air time and millions of dollars spent ahead of Governor Tom Corbett. The governor’s campaign ad featured Sue Corbett, Tom Corbett’s wife, their adopted grandson and Commonwealth Foundation talking points touting Governor Corbett’s record level per-pupil and basic education spending.
The campaign advertisement is nothing but a complete and utter bullshit piece of revisionist history on his “teaching career” and his less than stellar education record. It’s pretty obvious that the Corbett campaign knows how to read polling data and see that his handling of education will be the largest reason as to why people are going to go out and vote this November. In the ad, Sue Corbett mentions that they were both public school teachers and that “education is really important.” In fact, the governor was a teacher for one year.
Then comes the bullshit…
Sue Corbett goes on to say:
He’s increased the spending in the Education Department 1.5 billion dollars over what it was when he came into office. Pennsylvania is at the highest it’s ever been for spending in education. We’re also one of the top states in the country in what we spend per pupil on education. Tom wants to see results and those results are kids graduating. They’re ready for a career, they’re ready for college. Every kid in Pennsylvania deserves to be off to a good start and I think that’s what drives him every day he’s in office.
This 1.5 billion and record education spending the governor is advertising comes from “pre-stimulus” funding and increased spending on teacher pensions, which never makes it into the classroom, and his claims about “per pupil spending” being the highest in the country is false. According to the latest National Education Association study, Pennsylvania doesn’t rank in the top 10 when it comes to per pupil spending.
People know Governor Corbett’s record and know that his brand has been tarnished for three and a half years now. He can whitewash all he wants but nothing is going to change it.
In this gubernatorial election (when we get to elect a new guber) it looks like we’re going to choose between two “Toms”. One “Tom” wants to frack PA into the stone age because those are the marching orders he got from corporate handlers who got him elected the first time. The other “Tom” will also frack PA into the stone age, too, by crating a severance tax – which will become a “cash cow” for the state, and ultimately encourage more drilling. Bottom line is, neither “Tom” has the courage, the integrity, or the political will to stop the systematic devastation of rural PA. What do these two “Tom” have in common: 1) Neither one has actually spent any time in the sacrifice zones and faced the people whose lives are being ruined. 2) Neither one lives in a region that will be impacted. 3) Both have taken the time to be ‘courted’ by the industry and gone on pre-arranged ‘greenwashed’ tours of a well site. 4) Both have the industry’s “talking points” rolling off their tongues about “jobs, nat/gas being a ‘cleaner burning’ energy source, lowering domestic energy costs, and (my personal favorite) energy independence. Of course, none of these ‘talking points’ have more than a tiny grain of truth, and some are flat out falsehoods. But, that doesn’t matter to these “Toms” because these issues make for great campaign sound bites, and both of these “Toms” are counting on the urban voters to get them elected, which is why neither of the “Toms” really care what will happen to the people in the shale field sacrifice zones. Oh, there’s one more thing these two “Toms” have in common. Neither will get my vote.
I have always thought of him as Tom, “One Term Tom.”