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As all of you know by now, I was chosen PLP Leader on Friday night, and sworn in as Premier of Bermuda on Monday morning.

A lot of people were shocked, including Alex Scott, who came to Devonshire Rec in GP1, without thinking about how he was going to get home.

Not to mention Paula Cox, who thought she was the last-minute compromise candidate.

Dr. Ewart Brown was more surprised than anybody else: He was so sure he had 70 per cent of the vote locked up that he had given up his Transport Ministry, let his hospital privileges lapse, renounced his U.S. Citizenship, and bought his wife a new hat.

It feels like Bermuda is ready for me and I am ready for Bermuda.

I believe that the PLP members over the past three years have begun to see me in a larger light. People have gotten to know me more as a person, too.

Over the weekend, I drove around in GP1 a bit. I drove over to Alex Scott's place to pick up his government-issue Blackberry, and then I re-wrote the Throne Speech.

I made it very short, because you could see from the past that nobody listens to it, even the Cabinet Ministers who are supposed to make it happen.

I wanted to change the Throne Speech before I appointed Cabinet Ministers. You know those guys - they'll second guess you something terrible, and debate everything half to death.

As I told the reporters after the vote, I'm a man of action, so sometimes I have to just go ahead and do things on my own.

There's always time for getting input after the final decision has been made.

When you already know what's needed to take Bermuda to the next level, as I do, you don't have to consult with very many people. That's only misleading them into thinking they can stop progress. You can't coddle people too much.

There are bound to be hurt feelings, and I make no apologies for that. If you're going to plough a field, there's going to be some broken ground. If you're going to run over somebody, there are going to be tyre marks.

Tyre marks right across the backs of the UBP, among other places.

Did you see Wayne Furbert on TV? The minute I was appointed, he was droning on, calling me a divider and a self-server and any other insult he could get out of his mouth without mangling.

As I told party members at our banquet Saturday night, "we will relegate the UBP to irreversible obscurity at the next election."

Wayne Furbert couldn't say that sentence if he tried.

And I dress better than he does.

A reporter asked me if I thought the Opposition had no right to exist, and if I was advocating a one-party state. Now, that was a plantation question if ever I heard one, and so I did not answer it.

I did tell the reporters, though, that I'll have an open-door policy as long as they are fair and balanced.

I think they have been fairer and more balanced lately. You can tell it by the size of the photographs of me they have been running on the front page, and the long columns by Calvin Smith and Julian Hall analyzing the pros and cons of each leadership candidate.

The fairest and most balanced story was the interview with my wife, in which she announced that I am trustworthy.

I know, because I'm so smart, that an awful lot of people don't trust me.

Perhaps it's because I say exactly what I think, which most people in politics do not, except, when for legitimate strategic reasons, I have to mislead you.

Perhaps it's because of my skin colour. Perhaps it's because I worked for quite a few years in the United States and have a lot of American friends and some American ways of getting things done.

Mostly, though, I think it's because I do get things done. Quite frankly, that always makes people nervous. Especially people who don't get things done.[[In-content Ad]]

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