Speech at The Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C. July 9, 2012
(Transcript Below)


"I said around the state that the obligation of a Governor is to find that space between compromising your principles and getting everything you want. There is always a boulevard between those two. That's the boulevard of compromise, sometimes its narrower, sometimes it's broader. But it is in my experience always there if you're willing to push to try to find it. I would not ask anyone to compromise their principles, there's too much of that in politics today to begin with. But I also have to get everybody to acknowledge you're not going to get everything you want. And once you can acknowledge it on both sides of that equation you can find and force comprise as an executive. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. OK? I can fight with Democrats publicly and privately over issues of principle where we can't find compromise, and at the same time, hold conversations with them on issues where we can find common ground and force that. The illusion that you see in this town that somehow that can't happen, it's not possible, it's just an excuse. It's an excuse of failed leadership by both parties. You have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You have to be able to find compromise. People send us to these jobs to get things done.

So are people in New Jersey noticing? Well, I'd say this: the last public poll before Election Day in 2009 when asked that question, do you think your state is moving in the right direction or is it off on the wrong track, 19% of New Jerseyans said they thought the state was moving in the right direction. That's why I'm here. You're an incumbent with 19% right direction, it's going to be a tough day on Election Day.

Now, in the last public poll, 53% of New Jerseyans believe their state's moving in the right direction. In that same poll only 36% of New Jerseyans believe our country's moving in the right direction. They are discerning between two different approaches to government, the federal approach and the New Jersey approach. What I've just outlined for you is the New Jersey approach. It doesn't make every day a happy day. It doesn't make every day an easy day for sure. But what people in New Jersey are seeing is their government is getting things done for them, and the state's getting better. 85,000 new private sector jobs since I've become Governor. The best year in home sales this year in 2012 since 2007. Our best job growth year last year since 2000. We had a decade of joblessness in New Jersey. 2000-2009 we had zero net job growth in the private sector in New Jersey. 2011 was our best year of job growth since 2000 and 2012 is now outpacing 2011 already.

People are noticing, and things are happening inside our state. In the end, my message is that leadership is the only thing that will make the difference, is the only thing that will make the difference, and leadership is not just about obstructionism. Leadership is also not about caving every time you get pushed. Leadership is about nuance, and about understanding and communicating to people. Here is what I stand for, and on these issues I will not be moved, but then on others there's leaving room for discussion and accomplishing principled compromise where it can be.

That's why I have great respect for the Senate President Steve Sweeney and the Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. They're Democrats; we don't agree on a lot of things, but we've worked together. We've made it our business to put the people's business first, put politics second, which is why it is a little bit disturbing to me what they've done with the idea of tax reduction. It seems to me the closer we're getting to a presidential election in 2012 and a gubernatorial election in 2013, the old politics may be creeping back in. That's when it's even more important for the executive to fight to continue to find compromise, not to throw up your hands and give up, and I think all too often in executive leadership positions all across this country, executives have decided just to throw their hands up and say they're bad, I can't deal with them. Then don't ask for the job. No one ever told you it was going to be pleasant or easy. The job of an executive is to make sure that you get the job done, then you force people into a room and you find a way to get to compromise. In some it will be impossible to find compromise. But my experience is more times than not you can find it.

And so I hope New Jersey is setting an example and I trust it is for the rest of the country. In states across the country I think you're seeing more and more of this, and hopefully, this infection of compromise will eventually spread here. I'm not nearly as hopeful about that as I am that it will spread to the other states, but we need to continue to talk about it..."

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