Tim Kaine Feels Your Pain

Gov.-elect Tim Kaine's 'town hall' listening tour is the gift that keeps on giving - in the form of friendly stories beforehand, like this one from The (D.C.) Examiner, in which Kaine comes off as a thoughtful fellow already hard at work. Then come the follow-up stories, like this news-free article from The (Lynchburg) News & Advance.

"It's the most urgent issue," Kaine said.

Yep.

“You’re helping me increase my learning curve,” Kaine said.

I think the idea is to lessen the learning curve, or at least climb it quickly, but nevermind. The details of what gets said don't matter so much at these events, though Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth delivers a nice framing-the-issue quote in the Examiner story:

"Too many in the development industry are expecting the General Assembly to write a blank check for transportation, and I don't think that's what the voters are prepared to do," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which advocates for a stronger connection between urban planning and transportation growth. "They want to know there's a real plan for where and how we grow."

'Blank check' - that one will fit into a lot of sound bites, and it's a good point.