negative payload "he"

[Orion Montoya]

On 9/21/05, Peter A. McGraw <pmcgraw at linfield.edu> wrote:
> but I still don't see any need for any other pronoun than "he" here.  In
> "In Florida [unlike Louisiana] we had a governor who knew what pro was
> doing," pro can still be "he" and the contrast is preserved, since "he" is
> just as unlike "she" as "Florida" is unlike "Louisiana."

It seems to me that this would not be adequate for the speaker's
intention because, beyond contrasting Bush with Blanco, he may also
have intended to suggest that *any* governor who knew what pro was
doing would have done what Bush did.  Bush, in this construction,
knows what he is doing, but it is not a quality peculiar to him;
perhaps the speaker feels that 47-48 other governors would also have
known exactly what to do, and so the "they" encompasses all of these
as well, singling out Blanco as uniquely "incompetent" by contrast.
"All governors," he might say "know what they are doing, except
Blanco."

O,