The People Have Spoken

And I think they have spoken loudly. There is a good amount of fallout from the elections just 24 hours ago. Rumsfeld resigning; Hastert won't run for a leadership position in the Republican Party. Where do I begin?

I have to agree with what many other blogs have commented; that people weren't voting *for* democrats in particular, there were tired of the way things have been running and were voting *against* that. They wanted a change and to send a wake up call to those currently in charge.

That wake up call didn't exactly happen here in Illinois. Mr. Blagojevich was re-elected governor. Of course with 49% of the vote, this guy is never destined to be very popular. Illinois is now a full-blue state. The democrats that are in power really need to solve many of the problems in this state in the next 2-4 years or they risk imploding. As Comptroller Dan Hynes has criticized the governor for withholding the payment of expenses just so he can brag that the budget is balanced, a breaking point will eventually surface. The budget in real terms is not balanced. Pensions have been raided to pay for continued spending. Quick fixes initiated for the short term. Eventually this will build and Illinois will have worst problems that what it now has. And who will the Democrats blame? It will be difficult to blame many Republicans as they are a minority party out of power. The Democrats will blame one-another. Meanwhile, if the Republicans are smart, will regroup, lick their wounds and come out stronger in 2008 and/or 2010.

The real story here is Green Party candidate Rich Whitney getting 11% of the vote. This will strengthen the Green Party in Illinois as a viable party. My congratulations to the "Greens." Thank you for giving us more of a choice for governor in Illinois.

The biggest surprise for me yesterday was the 96th Senate race. Koehler's win was a much larger margin than what I had thought. I though it would have been closer; somewhere around 52-48% with Koehler winning. Good luck to Mr. Koehler. I'm afraid though that George Shadid will be unable to retire now as he'll have to hold Koehler's hand during his term in office, like he did during the campaign. During the campaign, you never saw Dave Koehler without Shadid at least 6 feet away from him. Shadid, along with strong financial support from various labor unions, are the ones who won that election for him. Can Koehler use some backbone and stand up for himself or is he going to do what he is told to do by the people who bought, paid and put him there?

Common Sense of it All: Change is good, and overall I think yesterday's strong turnout sent a clear message to our leaders and would-be leaders. I hope it doesn't end up with the old saying, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."