Anyone who listened to Gov. Paul LePage’s inaugural address Wednesday with hopes of hearing soaring rhetoric or minutely detailed policy proposals was surely disappointed. LePage is not a polished orator, nor is he a policy wonk.

But LePage’s first speech as governor was a perfect reflection of the man who will steer Maine’s ship of state for better or worse over the next four years: straightforward, to the point, and crystal clear about his goals and priorities.

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Gov. Paul LePage

“I do not care about editorials, opinion polls or the next election,” LePage declared near the end of his 31-minute address. “I have four years and a job to do.”

That job, he believes, revolves largely around the need to improve the state’s business climate and invigorate the sluggish economy.

As he did so often during his campaign, LePage promised to “put people before politics” and offered a list of those who stand to benefit from his pro-business, pro-growth policies:

• “The parents trying to make a better life for their kids;

• “The retirees trying to hold onto their homes on a fixed income;

• “The college graduate trying to find a good paying job;

• “The entrepreneurs with the courage to take a chance on an idea; and

• “The taxpayers tired of footing the bill for a bloated establishment in Augusta.”

Calling himself “first and foremost” a businessman, the former Waterville mayor and general manager of Marden’s Surplus & Salvage, LePage described Maine as “the hardest place in the country to start and grow a business.”

“Consequently,” he said, “we earn just 80 percent of the national per capita income and we are failing to make the investments needed to grow our tax base.”

LePage pledged to attack red tape and regulations that create “bureaucratic road blocks to job creation” and to work toward reducing the cost of doing business in Maine through public policy initiatives aimed at everything “from the cost of licensing a business to health care, workers compensation and utility costs …”

The importance of business to Maine’s success — “profit is not a dirty word … it is the direct and indirect solution to all of our challenges,” he said — was the dominant theme of LePage’s speech but it was not the only theme.

He spoke about the importance of education and about the need to reform the state’s welfare system while continuing to help those in need. He paid tribute to the state’s military men and women. And he called for an end to the partisan political divisions that have too often impeded progress.

“Partisan affiliations, political leanings and the obsession with winning and losing have been getting in the way of solving Maine problems,” he said. “We need a new approach and it starts right here and right now! I am willing to listen and work constructively with anyone committed to honest solutions that benefit all Maine people.”

Identifying problems and promising to fix them can help a candidate for governor win an election, of course, and revisiting the problems and promises can make for an invigorating inaugural address. The real test of LePage’s vision and capacity for problem-solving will emerge in the coming weeks and months as he deals with lawmakers who may have their own ideas for dealing with the state’s problems.

Maine’s first Republican governor in 16 years takes office with Republican majorities in both the House and Senate but as his Democratic predecessor could testify, a legislative majority does not always produce perfect results for a chief executive.

LePage demonstrated a firm commitment to fiscal restraint as mayor of Waterville and his first challenge as governor will be to devise a budget in the face of continuing revenue shortages.

Voters elected him in large part because they believed he was the best qualified among the candidates for governor to tighten the leash on that “bloated establishment in Augusta.”

All he has to do now is prove that the voters were right. And even though LePage doesn’t care about editorials, we nevertheless will take this opportunity to congratulate him on a successful inauguration and an excellent inaugural address — and to wish him well as he undertakes the difficult job ahead.