Herbert Hoover was well-liked in his day, praised for his engineering prowess which he used to tackle major worldwide problems following World War I. He was a natural choice for president in 1928.

But then the 1929 stock market crash happened, followed by the Great Depression. None of these things were exclusively the fault of Hoover, and frankly most of what his successor — Franklin Roosevelt — did to end the Great Depression worked until World War II broke out and we flexed our production muscles. But Roosevelt is remembered for ending the Great Depression and Hoover is not.

Jimmy Carter was a former U.S. Navy officer and peanut farmer who became governor of Georgia. He was another person well liked and became president in 1977, providing a respite from the craziness of former president Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford. But by 1979, with inflation, gas lines, things seemed bleak.

Carter is remembered for a speech in July of 1979, sometimes called the “crisis of confidence” speech, or the “malaise” speech, even though the word “malaise” is not used once by Jimmy Carter. While the speech was focused on energy and asking Americans to make sacrifices, it is remembered for Carter’s tone, which was meant to be hopeful but came across as negative. Add to this the Iran hostage crisis later that year, and Carter became a one-term president, just like Hoover.

I bring up the example of Hoover and Carter, because someone asked me recently if we, in West Virginia, were in a “Morrisey malaise.” Gov. Patrick Morrisey has only been in office for eight months and has one legislative session under his belt, so I’m not prepared to judge him or his administration yet when it comes to economic development. But other people are, which could have repercussions for the remainder of Morrisey’s first term as governor.

Morrisey can point to the recent legislative session and getting 12 out of 14 bills across, and I have written about all of those bills. But I bet if I went out on the street and quizzed people about what bills of Morrisey’s got passed, I doubt many would know. And some of those bills only officially became law and went into effect in the last few months, so their effects on the state’s economy will take time to see.

But I bet if I did ask people what comes to mind when I mention the name of Gov. Morrisey, I suspect it would be vaccines or some other social issue. Some might blame the media – me and my colleagues – for only focusing on social issues, but I’m merely covering what Morrisey and others in power are talking about or dealing with.

Please, by all means, give me a big economic development announcement to write about instead, because I’m nearly burnt out on religious exemption lawsuit coverage.

Last week was the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce 89th Annual Meeting and Business Summit, which is normally where governors make big economic development announcements. Morrisey didn’t make one. In fact, there was only one economic development announcement, which was really just a rebranding of a water bottling plant project that some in Jefferson County have been fighting.

Morrisey did speak on Thursday as the final speaker of the morning, when the summit takes a break for the day and people head to their lunch reservations, tee times, the skeet shooting range, or the bunker tour. The speech was sold to me earlier in the week as a brand-new State of the State speech. Instead, it was mostly a rehash by Morrisey of his bills that passed the session, a new plan to be more cautious with state investments and incentives for economic development projects, and a vague plan to reverse the state’s terrible labor force participation rate.

The one new thing was a 50 by 50 initiative, aimed at increasing base load electric generating capacity in state from 16 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts by 2050. The mission is to make the state more appealing to energy-intensive industries, like the growing data center and A.I. economy. But it is not clear to me that the state’s two major power players — FirstEnergy and American Electric Power — are on board for this. And to do so before the demand is there could mean we, the customers — eating much of the costs.

General consensus among Business Summit attendees — lawmakers, industry lobbyists, small and large business leaders — was that Morrisey’s speech was nothing they haven’t already heard before. And the new things, such as 50 by 50, were simply not feasible.

Now, there has always been a tension between Morrisey and the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. They didn’t endorse in the 2024 GOP primary for governor. And among a certain subset of modern conservatism, being seen going against the Chamber of Commerce is a badge of honor. The Chamber recently released an analysis of state employment data showing downward trends in employment in important key industries. The Morrisey administration believes the data being used by the chamber doesn’t tell the complete story.

Who is right? Depends on who you trust. But I do know this: The WV MetroNews West Virginia Poll released some results Friday. When asked whether state government should spend more time on economic issues than social issues, 73% of respondents agreed, with 10% disagreeing and 17% unsure.

The people are done with a focus on social issues in a conservative red state that doesn’t have to fight these fights like they do in blue or purple states. People want to see more people and businesses coming into the state. They want to see wages going up, along with more housing and improved schools. And if they don’t see some positive efforts in the next three years, the Morrisey malaise may become real.