He didn't have to say the reason why there was unemployment
was that employers had trouble finding workers who could pass a drug test. Of
course, that sound byte, with no evidence, could have been designed to cover up
the reality that when Corbett took office, the state ranked seventh in job
creation. This year, it's in 49th place.
He didn't have to be the gas industry's cheerleader by
claiming there were 240,000 new jobs because the gas industry came to frack the
state. The only problem with his numbers is that it is about 10 times more than
reality, according to the Keystone Research Center.
With
all the cuts to social services, he didn't have to alienate the people by
extending a $1.65 billion tax credit to a foreign company, Royal Dutch Shell,
which owns or leases almost one million Pennsylvania acres, and is already the
world's leading corporation in terms of profits. Corbett may have believed
extending that huge tax credit was good business, and would spur job creation
and the economy. But, there is another probability for his generosity--one of
Corbett's largest campaign contributors is billionaire
Terrence Pegula who sold his company to Royal Dutch Shell in 2010 for $4.7
billion.
Tom
Corbett could have restored the $2 million that was originally budgeted for
public health education and studies of the effects of fracking--but which he
cancelled entirely. But, obviously, he didn't think studying the health effects
from fracking was worth alienating the oil and gas industry. That would be the
same industry that had given him about $1.8 million in campaign contributions.
Yes,
there is a lot that Tom Corbett could have done to improve his popularity. But,
what he did was to shuffle his top advisors and change his public relations
staff, a couple of whom went directly into PR agencies, where they represent
the oil and gas industry.
There
is a basic principle of PR: Sell the Sizzle Not the Bacon.
In
Tom Corbett's case, the sizzle has already fizzled--and the bacon has now shrunk
to about 30 percent of what it once was.
[Walter Brasch's latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, available at
amazon;.com, www.greeleyandstone.com,
and local bookstores.]
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