Speaking before the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Party, Governor O’Malley spoke about the choice voters face between moving forward or slipping back and contrasted Democratic Governor’s – like Kentucky’s Steve Beshear – with the “group of ideological, narrow-minded, short-sighted, throwback, antique, FDR-hating, tea partying Republican Governors.”

Below is the text of the speech as delivered.

You have a big choice to make in Kentucky this year and I believe that it actually comes down to one timeless question and it is, whether we move forward or whether we slip back.

Governor Beshear knows what it takes to move Kentucky forward and you know that because his top priority is creating and saving jobs in the state of Kentucky and don’t just take my word for it.  You know Moody’s, the bond rating agency, they’ve looked at your state, lots of smart people that crunch all the numbers and what they’ve concluded is that they are projecting that Kentucky will have one of America’s top 5 highest job growth rates this coming year. That’s leadership, that’s effectiveness, that’s Steve Beshear.

And get this to all your neighbors if you ever say the word global trade or global economy there is all sorts of horrible fears, and justified in many cases about jobs leaving the United States instead of jobs coming to the United States well get this Governor Beshear is teaming with Simba USA who are closing their plant in Mexico and expanding their plant here in Rowan County, creating jobs in Kentucky.

Our President Barack Obama, inherited the worst deficit and worst economy of any President in modern times.  He didn’t complain, he made the right decisions, he moved forward.  He got a lot of grief for it from the other guys and the birds in the rafters about saving GM well you know what if Barack Obama hadn’t saved GM, they wouldn’t be adding 4,000 jobs this month and if Barack Obama hadn’t saved GM, Steve Beshear wouldn’t have been able to get the 250 jobs from Corvette to expand here in Kentucky to create jobs.  And on the way in Steve was telling me about a company that he got from India, everybody hears about jobs going to India what you don’t hear as much about is this story that Steve actually got an Indian company to open up 250 jobs here with their company in Kentucky, putting Kentucky back to work.

You have a Governor, whose balanced, gone back to the board to balance your budget, not once, not twice, not three, not four, not five, but nine times, he’s gone back to the board in the face of this recession and the tough choices to balance your budget and he’s done it without raising broad based taxes on the businesses or the people of his state.  That’s not easy, not an easy thing to do.  You have a Governor whose had the guts and the courage to make $1.3 billion in cuts and if want to know how serious he is go home go on eBay and put in a bid on one of the state airplanes that he has put up for sale.

But as Governor Steve Beshear is not only balanced he has also made the right choices to move Kentucky forward.  Choices like protecting public education investments while Senator Williams and the Republicans senators tried to slash it by $50 million.  Choices like modernizing Kentucky’s business incentive program to create and save Kentucky jobs.  Choices that have extended health care to 50,000 children, Senator David Williams says he wants to take Kentucky back; Steve Beshear wants to move Kentucky forward.  Which way do you want to go, Kentucky?

Because really at the end of the day, I mean this choice is yours, I’m honored to be able to come in here today and to visit you from Maryland but this choice is up to you.
Do you want a Governor who will protect investments that you have worked so hard to make of the years in education, public education or a candidate who tried to cut public education at the same time that he used his taxpayer dollars to buy himself a $17,000 multimedia center with a plasma TV screen?  That’s not the priorities that the people of Kentucky embrace.

Do you want a Governor who gave himself a pay cut like every other family that is working their way through this recession or a candidate who spent more than $52,000 on cherry veneer wood paneling for his Senate office?

Do you want to move forward with Governor Beshear or do you want to Dave Williams take Kentucky back?

I’ve talked to a few of you tonight and what I’ve been struck by is your belief in the future, your ability as a people to look over the horizon and to recognize a leader that doing the right things to move you forward.

Let me touch on one last thing and it is this you know on the way here I looked up the dictionary definition of tea party and one of the definitions was this, “a group of children who play with imaginary friends.”

Think about it Senator Dave Williams, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, they’ve really have us all believe a lot of things that aren’t really so, wouldn’t they.  In their make-believe world with their imaginary friends they would have us believe that we can all somehow eat cake and lose weight.  They would have us believe that unions cause recessions.  They would have us believe bridges are, well you know, kind of like trees if you leave them alone long enough they’ll grow taller and stronger with age.

At their tea party there is no need to pay bills.  There’s no need to be serious about spending and spending cuts.  There’s no need to invest in the future because down is up, up is down, candy is a vegetable, and vegetables are candy.  But of course, we know that their type of tea party is a lot more Alice in Wonderland then it is Sam Adams.  It’s a lot more Mad Hatter then it is James Madison.

The real world doesn’t work like that.  The real world is the world that our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents built for us.

They built it with their hands, they built it with their heart, they built it with their sacrifice, they built it with the hope they saw in the eyes of their children.

And it was not easy in their generation, and it is not easy in ours but the best days in life are not the easy days, they’re the tough days, when you nonetheless dust yourself off and instead of being bitter about what you’ve lost, you focus on what you have.

And there is not another republic on this planet that has a better group of neighbors then we have in one another.

These are difficult and challenging times, there are no easy answers but there is only one way to go and Steve Beshear knows what it is and that way is forward.

There is no progress without struggle; there is no victory without sacrifice.  And America needs you Kentucky, America needs you like she’s never needed you before.  Just as America has needs our generation just like she has needed every generation, stand up in the face of these challenges, together to face these times and not only to face them but to overcome these challenges and to win.  Not just for ourselves but for the people who come after us.

And make no mistake about it the future is watching.

Thank you Kentucky, for jobs, for opportunity, let’s move forward not back, with Steve Beshear and Jerry Abramson.

Thanks very, very much.