Opinion: Murphy Met His Vaccinations Goal

Every time I have to hear Gov. Murphy talking about the vaccine and how important it is, it feels like Groundhog Day. I mean, hasn’t everyone who had the desire to get the COVID-19 jab had ample opportunity to get it already?

I understand he wanted to seek out the last few willing people that he possibly could to make sure he met his “goal.” But now can he retreat from the conference table for a while? He did it! He met the mark!

He’s been saying it since the damn vaccine was released. Like the main character in the movie Rainman, over and over again, we keep hearing him say “4.7 million, 4.7 million, 4.7 million.” I suppose it’s just a typical Phil Murphy thing. He wants to show that he can accomplish anything he sets out to, even if it means destroying the state economy.

He did that pretty well. But pulling out all the stops to get people vaccinated was starting to become pretty tiresome. First it was begging, then it turned into whining, then bribery, and then a form of chastisement, guilt mongering, then fear mongering, and he wouldn’t stop until the last person to bring the tally up to his desired number got jabbed.

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Obviously, most governors were on the “let’s-all-get-vaccinated-it’s-the-right-thing-to-do” bandwagon. But Phil Murphy had an extra motivation. He knew that he made a poor decision last year to return COVID-19 patients back to their assisted living facilities where thousands subsequently died. So he’s got to make up for that, and still come out smelling like a hero.

But now that he met his number, can he relax a little bit? Is the incessant lecturing going to stop? Can we stop seeing posters everywhere we go, commercials ad-nauseam on TV? Can we possibly not have to be subjected to the death count and the morbid eulogizing of the “blessed souls” at his self-aggrandizing news conferences?

You got what you needed, Governor, to allow yourself to sleep at night. Congrats. Now, can you give all of us a break?

Check Out the Best-Selling Album From the Year You Graduated High School

Do you remember the top album from the year you graduated high school? Stacker analyzed Billboard data to determine just that, looking at the best-selling album from every year going all the way back to 1956. Sales data is included only from 1992 onward when Nielsen's SoundScan began gathering computerized figures.

Going in chronological order from 1956 to 2020, we present the best-selling album from the year you graduated high school.