Trudeau makes his prediction

Add comment October 31st, 2008

Next week’s Doonesbury is about the election and Garry Trudeau has drawn the strip as if Barack Obama wins the presidency.

The Monday and Tuesday strips do not depend on who wins, so you’ll see them in the print edtion. However, Wednesday’s strip will be dumped if John McCain wins. A Doonesbury Flashback will appear if that happens.

The whole thing has a kind of “Dewey beats Truman” feel.

Endorsements are not predictions

5 comments October 30th, 2008

Some readers who have called to complain about endorsements say we picked Candidate A over Candidate B because we thought Candidate A was going to win. Nope.

In fact, there are endorsements we’ve made where I’m quite certain the candidate we DID NOT recommend is going to win. Our process is to pick the person we think is best, regardless of that person’s chance to win the election.

An example is our endorsement for the Green Party’s Rich Whitney for governor in 2006. We knew he wouldn’t win, but we thought he was the best person for the job.  Given the general disarray of Illinois politics, I’m sure there are a lot of people who wish he would have won.

We work hard on endorsements, which is why some of them seem so late this year. Members of the Editorial Board have attended candidate forums and we’ve hosted a few forums here at the News Tower. We’ve had joint appearances/mini debates here also,  a couple of individual sessions here and we’ve done phone interviews with candidates we did not see in person.

We’ve poured through our archives to see what kinds of headlines candidates have made. We’ve checked Web sites, campaign material and talked to folks who have expertise in the various positions candidates are seeking.

Most of the interviewing has been done by three people: Chuck Sweeney, Mary Kaull and me. We have digital recordings of the interviews here and videos of the joint appearances that are made available to the full Editorial Board before we talk about a race.

All that research sometimes yields only a couple of paragraphs when we sit down to write. It may not seem cost effective, but we take our responsibility to make recommendations in elections very seriously.

Another losing idea

Add comment October 28th, 2008

It looks like the state can’t lease the lottery. Read about it HERE. Not sure who would bid on it anyway. The most likely bidder looked like Lehman Brothers, and that’s not an option any more.

About those endorsements

1 comment October 28th, 2008

David Holwerk of the Sacramento Bee says it better than I can. Read his column about the endorsement process HERE. The reaction to Register Star endorsements have not been as colorful as the reactions Holwerk has received.

Rest in peace, Tony Hillerman

Add comment October 27th, 2008

I don’t get much time for recreational reading, but when I do I enjoy mysteries and one of my favorite authors has been Tony Hillerman. Hillerman died Sunday.

I’ve always been fascinated by Native American culture and Hillerman’s books described some of the conflict between our Anglo ways and the traditions of Navajo.

I haven’t read all the books in the Navajo Tribal Police series, so Hillerman will live on for me as I go back and find the titles I haven’t read yet.

We’re going the wrong way

Add comment October 23rd, 2008

This poll shows 75 percent of Illinoisans think the state is heading in the wrong direction.

Not surprising

Add comment October 23rd, 2008

A Chicago Tribune poll shows Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s popularity at 13 percent. That doesn’t surprise me because none of the candidates we’ve interviewed for state rep or state senator have had anything nice to say about the governor. Most have said they favor impeachment.

That brings me back to something I’ve written a couple of times. If Barack Obama becomes president, Blagojevich gets to pick the replacement. My theory has been that he’d pick himself to get away from the mess state government has become. I’ve mentioned my theory to quite a few elected officials and although they think it’s unlikely the governor would appoint himself U.S. Senator, they don’t dismiss the idea.

If Blagojevich stays and runs for a third term (two more years), he’s likely to face tough competition within his own party. Dan Hynes, Lisa Madigan and Bill Daley are just three of the high-profile Democrats whose names have been mentioned as possible challengers.

If Blagojevich were to survive the primary, and he could if votes were split among enough other candidates, Republicans are likely to have a strong candidate from a field that might include state Sen. Bill Brady and Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Doug Whitley.

Yes, I know we haven’t even finished with this election, but the way folks run for office these days campaigning seems to be more of a job than legislating.

More than we can publish

4 comments October 22nd, 2008

Letters to the editor about the Nov. 4 election are due by 5 p.m. Friday, but already we have more letters than can be published between now and Nov. 2, the last day we run election-related letters.

Early in the campaign season we run letters as they come in. Many people like to wait until as late as possible because they think their letter will have more impact for their candidate or their issue the closer to the election it runs.

That’s a good strategy, but when you have as many contested races on the ballot as we have this year, it’s difficult to to get them all in.

In past years I’ve eliminated national columnists the week before the election so I could use as many letters as possible. I’ve received many complaints about that from folks who say they’d rather read what Krauthammer, Thomas, Parker, Robinson, Goodman, etc. have to say than read another election letter.

We’ll run as many as possible, but not all will make it.

Gambling action alert

Add comment October 21st, 2008

I regularly get “Gambling Action Alerts” from the Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems. Anita Bedell is executive director of ICAAAP.

Most of the alerts have been about legislation in Springfield  that the group opposes and wants you to know more about. This week’s alert is a legislative survey that shows where candidates stand on various gambling proposals such as leasing the lottery, adding casinos, etc. Click HERE to see the survey results.

I took a quick glance and it appears quite a few candidates neglected to take the survey.

Endorsement fallout

10 comments October 20th, 2008

I knew there’d be a lot of folks who would disagree with our endorsement of Barack Obama. I received one phone call and about a dozen letters (so far) telling me why we were wrong. I only received one call telling me we did the right thing.

Most were polite, and I thank those people for making their points in a civilized manner. Others resorted to name-calling, which is not surprising considering how passionate people are about this election.

Normally you hear from people who disagree; seldom do you hear from folks who agree with what you’re saying.

At last count 105 newspapers have endorsed Obama and 33 have endorsed John McCain. The Chicago Tribune, for the first time in its history, endorsed a Democrat for president.

I’d like to remind folks that our vote was not unanimous. It was 7-2. I’d also like to point out that we endorsed Republican Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in 1996 and we endorsed George Bush in 2000. We endorsed John Kerry in 2004.