Reporter asks Jay Nixon if the buck stops with him in Ferguson, Nixon babbles incoherent response

Harry Truman, perhaps the best-known politician to hail from Missouri, once quipped that the buck stopped with him, which was to say that the former president accepted responsibility for major decisions.

Jay Nixon, a Missouri politician of considerably less stature, seems to have no idea where the buck stops when it comes to potential civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.

With a grand jury due to soon announce whether it will indict Ferguson police officer Daren Wilson over the shooting death of Michael Brown, a decision that could spark the re-emergence of riots in the St. Louis-area town, Nixon fielded questions on Monday night from reporters.

The Huffington Post’s Matt Sledge asked Nixon a pretty simple question, the type that a statewide politician of 22 years might expect to face during a serious public matter:

Sledge: Given that you’ve declared a state of emergency and you put the highway patrol on the unified command, uh, does the buck ultimately stop with you when it comes to how any protests are policed?

Next, we’ll attempt to transcribe Nixon’s baffling stream of semi-consciousness (it wasn’t easy):

Nixon: Uh, we’re, um, you know, it, uh; it, uh, you know, our goal here is to, is to, is to keep the peace and allow those [?] voices to, uh, to be heard, um, and in that balance, um, of attempting, you know, uh, I am using the resources we have to marshall, to be predictable, uh, for both these pillars.

Got that? It goes on, this time sprinkling bacon bits of political buzz terms on his word salad:

Nixon: I’m more, um…I-I-I- just will have to say I don’t spend a tremendous amount of time personalizing this, vis a vis me. I’m trying to make sure that, uh, um, that, that we move forward in a predictable, peaceful manner that plans for all contingencies that might occur, um, so that the people of a disparate group of opinions and actions, um, can, can be heard, while at the same time, the property and persons, pers— persons of people in the St. Louis region are protected. So, um, uh, I-I- prefer not to be commentator [?] on it. I’m, uh, making decision that in, in, ah, you know, to make sure we’re prepared for all contingencies and I think this is another step, positive, you know, positive, predictable step towards preparing for any contingencies.

Sledge followed up, asking again if anyone in Missouri government is in charge in terms of responsibility. Just listen for yourself how Nixon goes on (courtesy of The Guardian’s Jon Swaine).
For a two-term Missouri governor once rumored to be on Democratic short lists for vice president in 2016, the Ferguson affair has caused Nixon to shrink and wither before a national audience. When riots erupted following Brown’s shooting death, Nixon stuck to his calendar of school tours in Joplin and hangouts with the Future Farmers of America.

That was before almost everyone, including former NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth, piled on to Nixon for his absence while part of the state he governs burned. Nixon finally got the hint and showed up in Ferguson to make his presence known.

Now Nixon can’t even tell reporters where the responsibility lies with the response to the upcoming Ferguson grand jury decision. 

Somewhere, the buck stops in Missouri. But it doesn’t seem to be at Nixon’s desk.