Gov. Jan Brewer Delivers Emotional State of the State Address

The full text is here.

And at New York Times, "Governor Strives to Restore Arizona’s Reputation," a discussion of Brewer's speech at the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's annual luncheon:

TUCSON — Gov. Jan Brewer had intended to use her speech at the Convention Center here on Tuesday to talk about the severe budget shortfall that Arizona faces, after two years in which she had been identified with a series of contentious issues, particularly immigration.

But no. “Today is not a day for politics or policy,” Ms. Brewer said. For a fleet eight minutes, Ms. Brewer, looking sober and saddened, paid tribute to those who were killed and injured in a mass shooting on Saturday — and also offered something of a defense of a state whose reputation has been under a cloud.

“I want to speak to you about the Arizona I know, the place we saw again even on such an awful Saturday,” she said. “It is a place of service, a place of heroes, a place with a bruised, battered heart that I know will get past this hideous moment.”

Her remarks, a downstate reprise of the official State of the State address she gave to lawmakers in Phoenix on Monday, illustrate the challenges Ms. Brewer faces. She is eagerly trying to defend a state whose reputation has been battered in recent years, particularly since the massacre here on Saturday.

But fairly or not, Arizona’s image has been forged in part because of Ms. Brewer herself, who has been identified with the tough law aimed at illegal immigrants, budget cuts that include denying aid to people who need life-saving transplants and laws permitting people to take concealed guns into bars and banning the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools.

“She faces some real challenges where the image of Arizona is concerned,” said Nathan Sproul, a Republican consultant here. “I think this is the darkest time for Arizona, per the way the nation looks at us, since when we repealed the Martin Luther King holiday in the 1980s. That took Arizona a decade to overcome. I think this presents Arizona with the strongest challenge since then.”

That's a clever use of quotations from the Times' Adam Nagourny. Public opinion data do not support the notion that Gov. Brewer's leadership left the state's image in tatters. It's the opposite, actually, and Brewer cruised to reelection last November. That said, the massacre itself won't recede from the American psyche for years, although my sense is that the crisis will bring out the best in some of our leaders --- Jan Brewer for sure, and perhaps President Obama as well. He's expected to deliver an address to the nation tomorrow night.

See also, "Brewer Visits Tucson Shooting Victims in Hospital."

RELATED: "Tribute to Rep. Giffords Will Affirm the First Amendment as ‘Bedrock’." (Via Memeorandum.)