LIVING FREE:

Folks often ask why it is that New Hampshire has remained, almost uniquely, devoted to the founding principles of the nation, with limited government, low taxes, and the like. There was a terrific discussion on NHPR this morning about the structure of our state government--which includes the weakest governorship in America; one of the largest legislative houses in the world; and an executice council, left over from colonial days, that wields enormous power over the governor. All of these checks and balances are designed to make it difficult for state government to do much of anything without a very broad consensus, and they generally succeed.