Roy Barnes 2010

From the Rome News-Tribune, Oct. 24, 2010 --

THAT SHOULD COME as no surprise. Roy Barnes is not only far-and-away the best choice for the job he once held — governor of Georgia — but this newspaper endorsed him in 2002 against the current incumbent.

Sure, it endorsed the sitting governor in 2006 when faced with a choice of the devil or the deep blue sea. Remember our headline? “Perdue, with a prayer.” If Barnes had been on the ballot then, he would again have had our support. Why? Because he earned it.

If the choice is between a man of action and ideas, with a heartfelt wish to make Georgia a better place, and a clone of the do-nothing present holder of the office, that’s no choice at all.

After Barnes lost in 2002, this newspaper predicted what would be next: “The best guess involves recalling the old childhood game of giant step, baby step. Georgia has been taking giant steps forward. Under Sonny Perdue it is likely to start taking a series of baby steps backward. Chances are that Georgia will retreat toward a state of indistinguishability with a somewhat moribund economy.”

How’s that for a dead-on description of the condition of Georgia today?

WHEN IT LAST endorsed Barnes the paper noted that he had “delivered that political rarity: real tax cuts. He’s raised the homestead exemption, chopping $650 million a year off what Georgians have to pay in property taxes. ... He got approval for the first sales-tax ‘holidays’ for buying back-to-school items. ... He launched a cancer research initiative that boldly seeks to find that elusive cure for the dread disease.”

All these, in the past eight years, have been wiped off the face of the state. Georgians do not need four more years of erasing past gains by another seat-warmer who, in 20 years in Congress, failed to distinguish himself in other than personal financial difficulties.

Will Barnes make some mistakes while at the helm again? Of course, but that’s way better than facing another era where nothing but mistakes are made.

The last thing this state needs today, with problems piled to the sky by eight years of ducking problems plus the current economic difficulties, is another governor who knows only one song: “The sun’ll come out tomorrow, so ya gotta hang on ‘til tomorrow.”

This newspaper, both before and after Barnes’ previous terms in office, has vehemently disagreed with some of his views. It’s been on the opposite sides of lawsuits where he represented our opponents — and the paper won, which is not easy to do against Barnes who knows the courtroom as well as he does politics. It fully expects to differ with him again as he resumes leadership of the state.

THAT’S THE NATURE of the public arena, which those of “my way or the highway” persuasion routinely forget.

Roy Barnes will not sit on his rump for the next four years. He knows and loves the state, he knows the problems and the needs, he knows how to get things accomplished in an increasingly nasty, cut-throat political arena.

But mostly — win, lose, draw and damn the torpedoes — he will try with everything he’s got to fix what now ails Georgia and get it moving, and employed, once again.

This election is not about who will be governor. It is not about allegiance to a particular political party. It is about who will be a leader.

There is only one candidate in the race who has proven he can lead. Those concerned about Georgia’s future have only one choice in this election: Roy Barnes.