Tom Corbett is in desperate need of some good news.
He didn't get it yesterday.
After a disastrous budget process that saw him go 0-for-3 in his push for three big legislative initiatives - liquor privatization, transit funding and pension reform - the governor is feeling the heat in his poll numbers.
Give Corbett credit for this: First, he did once again deliver a balanced spending plan on time that did not include a tax hike.
And he was up front about identifying big issues in the state and pushing the Legislature to include them in their budget work.
He even did one thing no other governor has been able to do, and not for the lack of trying. The House did actually pass a bill to privatize liquor sales in the state. Unfortunately for Corbett, that's as far as it got. The measure became a political football, a bit of a hostage between the Senate, which held off on voting on its own plan while waiting for the House to take action on transit funding, and his own fellow Republicans in the House, who hated the transit package because he came way to close to what for them is anathema - tax hikes.
So nothing got done.
And now Corbett is paying the price.
A new poll came out yesterday and it did not contain good news for the governor. More than half of those who responded believe it's time for someone else to live in the governor's mansion.
The numbers are fairly staggering - 56 percent said it was time for someone else to serve as governor, with just 24 percent backing Corbett for another term. That's what they call a landslide, a 32-point margin.
Amazingly, Corbett isn't all that popular within his own party, where only 43 percent believe he should be sent back for a second term.
Corbett says his "Big Three" agenda is a work in progress and is vowing to push them again in the fall.
He better deliver. His political life may depend on it.
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