Leadership Quote by Bob Riley

Riley’s line is a neat piece of political jujitsu: it shrinks government’s role without sounding anti-government. The first sentence lands like a scolding correction to a popular campaign promise. “Government does not create jobs” isn’t an economic proof so much as a boundary marker, telling voters what they should stop expecting from public officials. It’s also a preemptive defense against being judged on raw employment numbers; if jobs aren’t something government “creates,” then a governor can’t be blamed as directly when they disappear.

The second sentence softens the absolutism with a carefully chosen concession: government “helps create the conditions.” That phrasing shifts the debate from outcomes to atmospherics: taxes, regulation, infrastructure, education, permitting, and the general pro-business climate. It’s a rhetorical move that keeps government in the picture, but only as stage crew, not the actors. The subtext is classic market-first ideology: the private sector is the real engine; the state should get out of the way and maybe grease the gears.

Context matters. As a Republican governor in a South that spent decades competing for factories and corporate relocations, Riley is speaking the language of “business climate” politics, where cutting taxes, streamlining rules, and offering incentives are framed as pragmatic, not doctrinaire. The line also quietly recasts accountability: if policy only changes “likelihood,” then success can be claimed through intent and direction, while failure can be blamed on national trends, globalization, or forces no governor can control. It’s an argument designed to sound modest while making a very ambitious claim about what government should be.