Hit the ground running?

Governor-elect Chet Culver spoke at a statehouse news conference this morning.  The event was to start at 11 o’clock.  It started over 15 minutes late, and when it did start — it lasted just 7 minutes and 29 seconds.  Out-going Governor Tom Vilsack spoke for the first  3 minutes and 2 seconds, so you do the math on how long Culver actually talked.  He starting by thanking Vilsack for helping the Culver/Judge team "hit the ground running."  It seems much more like a stroll, perhaps even lollygagging.  Apparently the focus was on getting elected, not thinking about governing because Culver had nothing to say about the transition, like who Culver might ask to be in charge of it.  Vilsack suggested he’d set up an office for Culver and crew to move into today, but Culver wasn’t biting — or at least he did not tell us he and his staff would be in that office switching on the computers and talking on the phones Vilsack ensured were there.

There was one person running in the room, however.  Governor Vilsack’s staff staged the event in the governor’s formal office and put up ropes to cordon off the lectern and the area around the doors to the office.  It gave the cameras assembled in the room a clear and official-looking shot as Vilsack, then Culver, then Patty Judge entered the room.