Get to work, guv

Well, Gov. Gary Herbert won re-election. No surprise there, in this Republican state.

Still, it's darn sad that voters would choose a sleazy political operator over a moderate, competent, can-do retired general. Peter Cooke was the best candidate the Democrats have fielded in years (since Gov. Scott Matheson), and he's so much better than Herbert. I suspect that if Dwight Eisenhower were a Democrat, Utahns wouldn't vote for him.

Herbert keeps bragging about how Utah is one of the best-managed states. That's a compliment to our nerdy, conservative bureaucratic tradition. But Herbert's main job is to govern, not manage. And in that category, what President George H.W. Bush called "the vision thing," he's pretty much a failure.

Oh, Herbert talks the talk with education, but talk is cheap. Just like Utah's, and the governor's, results in education.

I don't get how Utah voters held President Barack Obama accountable for the poor economic recovery of the past four years, but gave Herbert a pass for Utah's abysmal commitment to education.

We have four more years of Herbert, but I don't want four more years of the same. I want excellence.

Jon Keer

Sugar House