They're all conservative, now.

Following the inaugurations today of 37 new or re-elected state governors in the US, it is tempting to theorize that all must have shared the same speech-writing consultant.  Almost to a person, inaugural addresses are sounding somber, austere ... almost conservative ... themes of costing less, cutting services, and balancing budgets.  Even California's Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo are hitting the austerity note.  I'm not sure this reflect a real ideological shift or a way to lower expectations on inauguration day.  And I'm equally not sure that there's any alternative.

It will be interesting to watch these experiments in leadership unfold.  My prediction is that some will succeed and others fail (of course), but the real task for students of the subject will be to disentangle failures from leadership factors and those that happen from structural problems that cannot be overcome by a governor.