A Chicago Blog

This could be really outstanding, so long as there are more constitutionalists there than knee-jerk peaceniks.

Whether or not you like McCain, he is the only thing that can save the Republican “brand.” He will win in the fall and reinvigorate the party by returning fiscal discipline to Washington. Thoughts?

John Hawkins polled “right wing” bloggers and came up with the following list.

#25) Mark Levin: 6
#21) Hugh Hewitt: 7
#21) George Will: 7
#21) John Roberts: 7
#21) Ronald Reagan: 7
#20) Victor David Hanson: 8
#19) Antonin Scalia: 9
#18) John McCain: 10
#14) Glenn Beck: 11
#14) George W. Bush: 11
#14) Glenn Reynolds: 11
#14) Matt Drudge: 11
#13) Bill Kristol: 12
#10) Charles Krauthammer: 13
#10) Thomas Sowell: 13
#10) Laura Ingraham: 13
#9) Karl Rove: 14
#8) Jonah Goldberg: 15
#7) Bill O’Reilly: 17
#5) Newt Gingrich: 21
#5) Ann Coulter: 21
#3) Mark Steyn: 23
#3) Sean Hannity: 23
#2) Michelle Malkin: 24
#1) Rush Limbaugh: 49

First, I’m not surprised that Rush topped the list. He is one of, if not THE most influential person in American politics. But I’m surprised at some of the other names. Coulter? Really? Rove? Listen, I will stipulate that Rove is the best political operative the right has ever seen. He makes Begala and Carville look like third graders (I guess they do a good job of that their selves). But ten years from now, are we really going to look back and say this is the party that Rove built? I doubt it. Bill O’Reilly? Come on. The guy buys into all the “windfall profits” crap.

I was also surprised that Ronald Reagan was so far down the list. But I guess the living carry a certain priority. Finally, I don’t think I would have pick John Roberts, but I’m glad he is on this list. Much more than Rove, Roberts is likely to have a profound impact, not just on the direction of the party, but the direction of the country.

I didn’t realize Rich Miller was pro-Con Con! That’s terrific. He criticized Dawn Clark Netsch yesterday for being afraid of the debate. Kudos.

For those of you not up to speed on Illinois’ Constitutional Convention, check out the Illinois Citizens Coalition and Illinois Issues.

NOOOOOOOOO! Oh Wait … whewww! He’s in North Carolina. That was close.

To be honest, I don’t know anything about Mike Gravel. But I gotta give the guy credit for this:

It looks like Jim Oberweis’ chances of beating Bill Foster in the 14th District just got a little slimmer. From the Beacon News:

Libertarian Dan Druck announced Monday that he is planning to run if he can get the required number of signatures to be on the ballot.

If he does, Druck would join Democratic incumbent Rep. Bill Foster, Republican Jim Oberweis and Green Party candidate Robert Hill, who announced his candidacy last month.

Conventionally wisdom has it that it doesn’t really matter who the Democrat candidate is, they will wlk away with the election in November. I can’t help being a contrarian here. Yes, Republicans are about as unpopular as disco, but I don’t think the public is stupid. I think they are far less partisan that most of us in the media, and I don’t think they’ll make their decision in fall based on the status of the Republican brand, as Newt Gingrich suggested yesterday. This election is going to be between John McCain and Barack Obama and their party affiliation borderline irrelevant.

Gingrich is right that the Republican “brand” is toast. But the Democrats aren’t doing all that much better. The fact is both parties have run out of political capital with mainstream common-sense Americans. Yet, we still have to vote for someone don’t we.

12 nuns were turned away from a polling place near Notre Dame because they didn’t have sufficient ID. A scandal I tell you!

Are there theological implications here? Is God a Clinton suporter?

Going into today’s primaries, the punditry has been preoccupied with the question of whether or not Obama can “close the deal.” A valid question, sure. But a more interesting question might be what happens if he wins?

I’m a baseball fan, and every year there is a team that manages to clinch their division relatively early in August. Or worse yet, they never do quite clinch and end up limping into the playoffs. In sports, momentum is everything, and these teams don’t usually do well in the post-season.

To superimpose the metaphor onto politics. Say Obama pulls this thing out; it will be a limping victory. Can he overcome the lack of momentum? Can he and Hillary “unite” and re-energize the party? These are the pertinent questions.

From a political point of view, if Obama wins the nomination, he’d be wise to offer the VP nod to Hillary for precisely this reason; she’s the one with momentum right now and he has to figure out a way to leverage that.