Your editorial’s characterization of Gov. LePage’s inaugural address (“LePage crystal clear on priorities for Maine,” Jan. 6) only made “clear” the governor’s reliance on cliches and platitudes to communicate his policies and plans for the next four years.

The governor’s list of those he claims will benefit from his undefined policies is so vague that it includes essentially every Mainer by implication.

The governor’s mantra that all good things come from “profits” is either childishly naive or dishonestly evasive. Few would argue that the economic disaster caused by Wall Street’s bottomless thirst for profits is a good thing, or that profits from prostitution and drug dealing, or following China’s environmental policies, would be helpful to Mainers.

Even Adam Smith understood that government and business have very different functions, and one cannot be run like the other. So, how then do these vague statements reassure Mainers that Mr. LePage can solve Maine’s problems?

The lack of specifics by the governor is especially troubling given that only slightly more than one out of three voters chose him in the election. In other words, nearly two out of every three voters decided that Mr. LePage and his policies are not the “right choice” for Maine.

Your characterization that the “voters” considered him “best qualified” and that now “all he has to do is prove the voters were right” is nothing more than a truism that hides the fact that the governor does not have anything close to a mandate.

Maine will suffer nothing but frustration and anger if the governor thinks his election was a popular endorsement of his policies. He still has to work to convince all Mainers that he was the right choice.

Sadly, your editorial missed that point.