Governor Easley took flack for spending too much time on the job and too little on the road. Getting away has not been a problem for Pat McCrory. “Governor” McCrory sees his job as a long, free vacation, not an opportunity to lead the state.

In his first week, McCrory visited Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte and New Bern. At least they are in-state. Since then, he’s frequented Houston, Charleston, New Orleans, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, D.C.–twice– and some mysterious Anniversary spot. With due respect to most of these places (not Washington), none of them is critical to governance.

The junkets came at suspicious times. His first week was sure to be the toughest. He left for the Big Easy right when legislating got hard. The governor slipped from view as unemployment cuts bit. And he skipped town again just as veto override-ers drove in the dagger. We call this “avoidance.”

As usual, McCrory makes no excuses. To hear him tell it, his expensive adventures are about meetin’ real folks–D.C. hacks and oil executives–and escaping “the Beltline.” In other words, they’re a healthy, necessary activity. Nonsense. You can talk to Web company executives…over the web. Raleigh is where you do your job.

But he clearly doesn’t want to do his job. Leadership is hard, and California’s lovely. Come 2016, we may finally get a governor who’s willing to stay home and actually govern.

Alexander H. Jones

Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.