Maine Gov. Paul LePage has stood out from the crop of far-right Republican governors elected in 2010 not for being less extremist than his peers like Ohio's John Kasich and Wisconsin's Scott Walker, but for being the biggest buffoon of the lot. So no wonder, when a student asked him about his greatest fear as governor, LePage answered:"My greatest fear in the state of Maine: newspapers," he said to laughter from the children. "I'm not a fan of newspapers." [...]Right. Fair and balanced. Of course a governor who signed a law weakening child labor laws not long after making clear he didn't really know what was in the law has reason to fear newspapers or anything other than "fair and balanced" (wink wink) news coverage. Of course a governor who said the IRS was headed toward being like the Gestapo has reason to fear reporting lacking that special "fair and balanced" flavor being read by the people of his state."There's a lack of objectivity," he said. "If they were fair and balanced, I would be a supporter."
LePage also said that education unions "are doing an awful, awful thing to future generations of Mainers," assailing the state's public education system and pushing charter schools as an alternative. For the record, Maine is above the U.S. average on every category of National Assessment of Educational Progress testing and has a high school graduation rate well above the national average.
Basically, LePage hates and fears anyone who stands against his extremist agenda. And because in his case the perpetual debate over whether Republican politicians are stupid, evil, or both is answered with a resounding "probably both, but definitely stupid," you get a buffoon elected with 38 percent of the vote lashing out at a lot of targets much more respected than he is.
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