That's their tourist board slogan.

Republicans cry out for Executive experience in their people because that's all they have. Therefore it is important for them to make everyone think that is all that matters.

I have known a lot of CEO's. One thing they all had in common is their unshakable feeling that the place they were running was not a Democracy.

Pulling groups together to deliver services to the public in a prudent way is not something any CEO I am aware of has any experience with. Most are my way or the highway types of guys.

Texas once had a hard driving CEO for Governor. His name was Bill Clement and he was elected in the 80's and he promptly went down in history as the biggest disaster to ever sit in Austin. He served one term, was tossed out, ran again later, got elected and then did quite a bit of good for the state. That was because he had learned how to run a government, something he did not know the first time he was in office.

The only elected person I can think of that made a good move from the board room to the Senate was Senator Robert S. Kerr. He ran a pretty large oil company, got rich, was elected Governor of Oklahoma and then to the Senate for three terms.

But the reality is he was always in politics since where and when he was in the oil business politics was about 90% of being successful. You had to balance a lot of different aspects of the public and the private if you wanted to be successful on his scale, so maybe he is not the best example.

Texas was home for a lot of years. It was really not that much different from the rest of the US. It still isn't.

Austin, however, really is like a whole 'nother country. That's one of the reasons it is growing so fast.