Full disclosure: My firm built John Kitzhaber's campaign website. I speak only for myself.

Slow talking....what's next: he's TOO TALL

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I agree that Dudley didn't offer much in terms of specifics, but I'm not sure that's the point of an acceptance speech during a primary. I expect Dudley to unveil a more specific plan this summer.

As for Kitzhaber, I didn't hear any specifics either, other than him repeating his past record, and wanting to build on it. But there's no doubting he has the clear edge.

I agree with Jason. Neither candidate offered specifics, or for that matter much of substance. But Kitzhaber is the master of the Rorschach speech, which allows the listener to read into his generalizations the substance they want to think is there.

I'm sure Chris Dudley is a great guy, but for all of the talk of bringing Oregon "back" after years of Democratic governance, he seems to be conveniently forgetting that his party was in control of the State House of Reps & Senate for much of the past 20 years, passing the laws that hamstrung us into the budget situation we're in.

He was on 95.5 the game here in Portland this afternoon on The Bald Faced Truth talking to Canzano. Great to get his take on Greg Oden, but he didn't have much to offer when it came to what he would actually do if he was elected Governor.

AT

Neither were really into specifics, though Kitzhauber spoke of tangible concepts and an actual record of accomplishments instead of empty slogans. Of course given the tough spot Dudley is in what with having never been elected to any office at all, empty slogans are about the best he could be expected to deliver.

As for "slow talking", it wasn't that he actually talks slow, it's just that all he was saying was a litany of slogans and pausing for the obligatory applause of the assembled fans.

That said, Dudley seems to be preemptively trying to head-off not having any real plans or ideas by positioning it as spending the summer "listening" while attacking experience as incumbency with empty rhetoric and revisionist history.

Again, about the only way he can go on since he has zero experience, no plans to lay out for the public to digest, and so far no ideas other than the worn out "cut taxes" and "cut spending" GOP puffery that is three decades past its sell-buy date.

Oregon risks 10 years of crushing, multibillion-dollar budget shortfalls unless it immediately puts the brakes on spending and starts offering fewer services, cautions a new report released Thursday. This is no attack by anti-tax or anti-government factions. The warning comes from Gov. Ted Kulongoski's "reset Cabinet," a group of trusted advisers he appointed to assess the state's long-term fiscal outlook and suggest changes. "We find that Oregon faces a decade of deficits, during which we cannot expect to be bailed out by a rebounding economy or a more generous federal government," the report, says. If state spending is allowed to grow at its current rate, it goes on to say, "lawmakers and voters will find themselves again and again between the rock and the hard place of cutting services or raising taxes."

Who do you think is more willing to meet this challenge head on, Kitz or Dudley?