On the evening of his last State of the State address, I started out confident that I didn’t need to hear Gov. LePage out on his current assessment of where Maine stands and where it should head. Been there, done that, far too many times.

Our disappointing political arena being what it is, this year I didn’t even bother to tune into the State of the Union. Sometimes the messenger is just too much of a hurdle to overcome no matter how promisingly escapist or feared threatening the anticipated message. Best to just channel-surf, go to bed early and wait for the postgame analysis the next day.

The only thing LePage’s swan song would have going for it was that it was indeed the celebratory start of the long awaited end of his seemingly interminable two terms in office. That’s certainly not the most desirable way to embrace the coming year’s governance, but one tries to remain as optimistic as one can.

The idea of watching a politician one disdains take a self-anointed victory lap or stand upon a familiar soapbox at length is not at all inviting, but then there’s always hope that the politician will have a major messaging malfunction, always best experienced live. Watched or not, the State of the State, part promise, part challenge, is unarguably an important catalyst upon an inertia dominated governance, irregardless of which party reigns. Ultimately, it’s what rulers are measured against.

Caught between that political yin and yang, I ended up not only watching the live public television coverage, but actually staying attentive throughout. Despite my assumptions as to how it would go down, what I encountered was the most impressive speech I can recall from any Maine governor.

The immediate take away, early on and throughout, was that it was so strikingly natural, direct and heartfelt. As the saying goes: “Seventh time’s the charm.” The one he skipped giving was my personal favorite, but this one certainly exhibited him in truly rare form.

Its makeup was pretty much expected in all aspects, but this time its appearance was far easier on the eyes and ears, far more competently presented and way more attractive and convincing as something approximating thoughtful statesmanship rather than an embarrassingly inarticulate rant.

My most vivid recollection of LePage’s first such outing was how comically ill-fitting his suit presented itself. It was as if begging for a snide Marden’s-based joke as to its place of purchase, or as if its off the bargain rack overtness was somehow a calculated fit accompaniment to the off-the-cuff regular-guy clumsiness of his attempt at oratory.

Those early Tea Party trappings have come a long way during LePage’s volatile occupancy of the Blaine House. As reiterated in his address, he plainly never ever imagined being invited to the governor’s residence, let alone residing there.

Yet for near another year he does, and now he finally seems at home there.

As his speech touched on all the usual talking points, and predictably re-visited his personal bootstrapping sans government help, the basic anti-government message of his stewardship remained one of going it alone. The concept of any collective empowerment still escapes Paul LePage’s limited vision’s fixation on the exalted virtues of solitary survival.

That is, unless one is talking about empowering business. Business’s welfare can and should be government’s main concern. From it all goodness is derived. His own personal odyssey from street waif to titan of retail marketing never gets old in its disregard for the reality that every disadvantaged citizen can’t replicate that ideologically perfect journey.

Paul LePage has been giving Mainers the business for over seven years now. It wasn’t so much his being a hard-line conservative as it was that his demeanor couldn’t have been meaner. He famously suggested that a political opponent should at least avail voters of Vaseline, yet he’s never shown such consideration himself.

In concluding his State of the State’s surprisingly polished if still not wholly convincing arguments of individual responsibility, LePage quoted what he relished as something Ronald Reagan attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

“You can’t help the poor by destroying the rich.”

Reagan did attribute that to Lincoln, but that was fake news. It was actually one of “The Ten Can-nots” coined by Rev. William Boetcker reflecting the anti-New Deal conservatism of his day that still dominates the Right.

Actually, LePage’s clearly intended political sentiment seemingly meant to quote Lao Tzu: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Then again, a knowledge of fishing is something Maine’s already pretty adept at. What it needs is a far better captain at the helm.

They say that “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” If that be true, then after a double dose of Paul LePage Maine should be in pretty good shape to survive swallowing whatever our next selection for Maine’s chief executive might be. Hopefully it will be a more unifying and visionary choice this time around.

Fingers crossed.

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.