Four months into his second year in office - still with major parts of his agenda unfulfilled - Gov. Jerry Brown this morning tried a little expectation control.
Asked by Bob Schieffer on the CBS public affairs show "Face the Nation" for any advice he might have for politicians, Brown said, "I've learned you don't get things done overnight. It does take time.
"Things that I was talking about 30 years ago - pension reform, renewable energy, completing the California water plan, high-speed rail, they're right at the top of the agenda today. So what do I say? Hey, you've got to take 30 years to get it done, because you can't get it done overnight, you can't get it in a term. But we're into instant gratification, get it done, if you don't do it in two years, you're a failure. Life doesn't work that way, at least from the point of view of somebody in their 74th year. It looks like things take longer, and now I'm kind of glad they do, because I still have something to do."
The Democratic governor, asked what he thought the presidential election would come down to, suggested one reason he may have been happy to keep quiet for months in his own gubernatorial contest in 2010.
"I think it turns on if one of the candidates screws up first and makes a mistake," Brown said. "Elections tend to move on the other person making the mistake."
Brown is in Washington D.C. this weekend meeting with officials on a range of policy issues. He and first lady Anne Gust Brown also attended the 98th annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Brown still wouldn't say if he will run for re-election, though he is raising money for a re-election campaign.
"I'm thinking about it," he told Schieffer. "I wouldn't rule it out."
Schieffer recalled an interview he did with Brown in 1979 "on a log in the hills above Sacramento." Here's that video:
Latest posts:
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.