CARNAHAN BEGINS WORK AS NEW GOVERNOR

A couple of days following his inauguration, a new Missouri governor is required to stand in front of a joint session of the General Assembly and deliver what in recent years has been called the "State of the State" address. Simply put, the speech is designed to inform legislators of the needs of Missourians, as if they needed reminding, and outline the new chief executive's plans and programs~ as if they needed to be repeated after months and months of political campaigns.

When Missouri's new governor stood before lawmakers the other day in the beautiful chambers of the House of Representatives, it was an occasion for celebration on the Democratic side of the aisle and measured response from the Republican section. For Mel Carnahan, it was the beginning of four years of hard labor and sacrifice that will be punctuated by infrequent applause and probably more frequent criticism and second-guessing.

Indeed, the latter has already begun.

Over the years it has been interesting to watch the responses of incoming governors as they assumed the mantle of office and began to get an inkling of what lay before them. The euphoria of their elections behind them, most incoming governors have already had at least a smattering of the responsibilities ahead by the time they deliver their state of the state address. Immediately after the votes are counted, governors are besieged, and we mean that quite literally, with plaudits and congratulations, day after day. They receive messages of support from citizens who didn't support them, and if that weren't bad enough, they receive requests, some of them at least politically outlandish, that would make a genie with a magic lamp dizzy at the hearing of them.

Let's face it: everybody instinctively knows that governors possess vast powers that can make recipients glad they are alive and enemies sorry for the same condition. We have seen new governors react to such immediate respect and admiration in various ways - some became withdrawn, some became plain boorish, and some became downright arrogant. A few handled their new space in the political heavens in much the same manner as before. Fortunately for our new governor, he has chosen to retain the laid-back personality that he had before his election last November. That's about as good a compliment as we could pay any chief executive at this point in his term.

Even among members of his own party, Governor Carnahan has his critics. That's natural, for after all, the Democrats had as bruising a primary as the Republicans. After tenures in both legislative and executive offices, Carnahan has his share of political foes, at least some of whom find their new environment less than pleasing. After all, the second most powerful man in state government, House Speaker Bob Griffin, had publicly endorsed Carnahan's primary opponent, Vince Schoemehl, and he was certainly not alone among legislators.

Mel Carnahan has the required qualities for a great governor, and only time will tell whether he is fortunate enough to use those qualities to move Missouri forward. He is honest, sincere, dedicated and not afraid to take his chances with fate.

He doesn't appear anxious to make everyone in the world like him, but neither is he a salesman who will promise anything to gain the confidence of the unwary. He gives every indication of being dedicated to the principle of forging what he calls a world-class educational system in Missouri, and as far as many citizens are concerned, this is enough of a serving on any chief executive's plate. If he can accomplish this one goal, he will succeed where others have failed because they fell victims to the fickle finger of political fate.

Governors who write exceptional history don't worry about the next election. They can't really. If they do, they immediately consign themselves and their office to a four year term of placating the enemy and overpromising the rest. The chief executive who measures his actions to gain future support will ultimately fail because he has not paid his dues to achieve success. The leader who leads so that he can lead again after four years will never make an exceptional record for himself. The state's history books are littered with governors who tried - and failed. That doesn't mean these men didn't win re-election or go on to higher office; it only means you can really fool all of the people some of the time.

Mel Carnahan's state of the state address was, at times, less then scintillating. That doesn't mean anything, since scintillation doesn't count for much when the record is finally written. The important point is our new governor will not hesitate to try to be the best governor the state has ever had. That's good enough for most Missourians.