CAPTIONS ANYONE?  As Madigan and Blagojevich share the love at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, what are they really saying to each other?  Maybe Madigan is smiling because of today’s Sun Times headline: Is Rezko working with the feds?

This has been entertaining to follow: MSNBC prez defends convention team Maybe they had to start fighting because their ratings are so low.  See ratings list below.

MORE HEADLINES

Time for America to Get Back Up - Senator Joe Biden
Bill Clinton: Obama Is ‘Ready to Be President’ - Adam Nagourney, NYT
The Devils in His Details - George Will, Washington Post
It Looks a Lot Like Unity - John Nichols, The Nation
The Master Has Arrived - Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
Bill Clinton Shows — and Gets — The Love - Joan Walsh, Salon
Did Hillary Help Barack’s Cause? - Anne Applebaum, The Telegraph

Dems Shouldn’t Worry, Obama is in Good Shape - Dan Gerstein, WSJ
Obama’s Nomination a Repudiation of Bill - Peter Brown, Rocky Mtn News
Campaign Confident About Obama’s Prospects - Marc Ambinder, Atlantic
Obama’s Stage: Has He Lost His Mind? - Charles Krauthammer, Wash Post
Avoiding a Lieberman Disaster - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
McCain: Too Reckless to Lead - Ilan Goldenberg, Democracy Arsenal
Has the Convention Helped Obama? - Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
The Democrats Strike Back - David Kusnet, The New Republic
Hillary Gets a Good Start on 2012 - Michael Barone, US News & World Report

DEM CONVENTION RATINGS/TUESDAY 10 PM ETNBC 5,970,000
CNN 4,802,000
ABC 4,760,000
CBS 3,820,000
FOXNEWS 3,499,000
MSNBC 2,574,000

In the race to replace retiring 18th District Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood, popular young State Rep. Aaron Schock (R) just scored another big coup that had to really deflate his opponent’s campaign. He just landed a major endorsement which Callahan expected ot get; Major Illinois farm group endorses Shock

Democrat candidate Colleen Callahan in way over her head; is not only politically naiive, but has a campaign team made up of relatives and friends with little to no political experience.  While the Democrats try to play this as one to watch; it’s not; for them anyway; for the GOP, it IS one to watch because it’s going to be a no-brainer win. Schock knows how to work and how to enlist the most professional advisors in the State.

I think the question every Politico  was asking going into this convention was whether or not the Democratic Party would come out of it unified. Now there was a good case to be made that the Clinton’s may just take this convention and make it their own, but aside from a few subtle, but pointed jabs at Obama by Hillary last night I think they sent a very clear message, support Barack Obama, unify the party and get out there and work your ass off to make sure the GOP does not maintain control of the White House for another four years.

They both delivered good speeches, they both unequivocally supported Obama for president, they praised and attacked McCain, they outline the failure of the Bush Administration, they praised the eight years before Bush and they rallied their troops. I don’t know if they could have done a better job, but I think they both hit home runs, I think their delegates are going to leave Denver motivated, inspired and ready to get out on the campaign trail to elect Barack Obama.

The GOP I think has a harder task next week. Bush is undoubtedly the most unpopular president in American history, his policies are seen as failures, his presidency is seen as a failure, America wants change, they want to rid this country of the past eight years, they want a new, fresh way forward. McCain generally does support the Bush policies, he has distanced himself on key issues, but here is the problem, the base still supports Bush. Maybe not as enthusiastically as they did in 2004, but they still defend him and his presidency. So McCain has to some how keep the base intact while simultaneously telling the American people his presidency won’t be another four years of Bush.

 Not to mention Obama is going to be speaking in a football stadium full of 76,000 cheering Democrats who will go nuts for him. He is also an excellent speaker and I just think he is going to come out of this convention confident, he is going to come out of this convention a new candidate and I am very concerned about what lies ahead if McCain and the GOP cannot equal the Democratic Convention. I hope they can, but I think we have just as hard a task and the Democrats did.

Please follow this link and listen carefully, and learn.  You’ll be expected to know this by heart at the next ball game you attend, Comrade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvxiG56M-eU

Has it been revealed yet who’s material he’s ripped off for the speech? 

In a story we broke here two days ago, the signatures CIOP submitted to place the living wage issue on the November ballot for Bloomington voters have been challenged by Bloomington resident, Guy Hanna.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25; Illinois’ minimum wage is $7.75, the fifth highest in the naton.

CIOP wants to move Bloomington’s minimum wage up to $9.81.  California’s minimum wage is $8.00

Here’s a link to minimum wage statistics.

The signatures submitted by CIOP were, by law, to be registered voters, residing in the City of Bloomington.  It is alleged by Hanna, that there are invalid addresses, non-registered voters, duplicate signatures and more.  CIOP needs 1496 valid signatures to be placed on the November ballot.  They submitted 1803.  Hanna provided supporting documentation alleging 422 invalid signatures.  If these figures hold, CIOP would be short 115 signatures.

CIOP is a local organization, but it is affilliated with a state-wide group with national implications.

Developing. . . .

Check out what the image people for Obama are doing.  Here’s what his TV background is going to be at his big acceptance speech thing at the Convention.  Straight out of Benny Hinn.  I wonder if he’ll do some faith-healing?  So is he going for the Messiah image?  It seems to me there was another charismatic speaker/leader who evoked imagery like that.  Big Roman columns, speaking to massed admirers standing in a stadium by the hundreds of thousands.  There the speaker also didn’t want a political platform, but “a political faith.”  He only wanted leadership his country “could believe in.”  Where was that?   Oh yeah, that was at a place called Nuremberg in 1927. 

While Mitt Romney seems to be the presumptive pick for McCain, and I’m a big Romney fan, Texas Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, makes a better pick and here’s why.

This would really help seal those Hillary women who are still upset and threaten to vote for McCain.  Some of these wounds, no matter how good her speech last night. will not heal.  “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” 

Women in general, whether Democrat or Republican; vote.

McPundit predicts Hutchinson.  Our Poll indicates our viewers pick Romney with Pawlenty a close second.

Go on Without Me

Watching Hillary Clinton speak at the Democratic National Convention, I was reminded of one of those old war movies in which the wounded hero melodramatically says to his comrades, “Go on without me.”

The old complaint about the Clintons is that they only care about themselves. They’ll do anything to win. They never let go. Clinton turned that stereotype on its head in the centerpiece of her speech. “Were you in this campaign just for me?” she asked, and the correct answer, surprisingly, was no.

It wasn’t clear she was going to get there. She said some nice words about Obama in her speech—yeah, she was proud to support him, fine—but then she switched into a litany of issues she’d fought for and people who had placed their faith in her. It was all about her, it sounded like. But then, with that question, she pivoted. The litany she’d just recited became an argument for Obama instead of a list of reasons to vote for her.