Hey Tim
ArchPundit
Was it okay for William Ligue to attack Tom Gamboa?
Was it appropriate for a bond trader to attack Randy Myers? How do you feel about that?
Was it appropriate for all those people to beat up on poor defenseless disco records?
January 2006
I Bought XM Radio
And while I had reservations, XM Fred playing Guadacanal Diary ended those reservations quite quickly.
If I lived in Chicago I wouldn’t have felt the need so much with WXRT being available and WXRT being on the internet probably stopped me from getting XM sooner. Even with the weird Pretenders obsession of certain XRT Deejays.
The commercial Eric points out actually made me feel better about my purchase–it reminded me that being a kid in central Illinois meant my primary contact with the music world was WXRT through my cable system in the late 1980s and that would have been worth paying for over the crap available locally. At the time I had public radio that primarily played classical and some jazz, a top 35 station in Bloomington-Normal and a 105.7 classic rock out of Peoria. During the school year, 88.1 WESN at Illinois Wesleyan (which I also appeared on in 1988-89) was fun, but erratic. XRT was it in terms of shaping my musical tastes.
While I love the local community radio station KDHX in St. Louis (and I appear on it every few weeks on Collateral Damage), the station has odd choices of music when I most want to listen, and there are about two local talk show hosts I can listen to.
I was terribly excited by XRT’s on-line streaming and still am, but even I’m only at my computer a portion of the day.
I Don’t Get It
I’m generally a pretty sympathetic guy to challenges to the Governor and have been criticizing the guy since before he took office, but I’m not seeing anything credible here. I don’t know where he’ll be before the current day and don’t see any serious arguments against the Governor.
Really, I’m sympathetic, but where’s the beef? Saying the Governor is a pain in the ass is certainly true, but it doesn’t address how he’ll be better or how he’ll win. Nor does it point out how Eisendrath plans on funding such a campaign–an internet ad doesn’t quite cut it.
In theory, I want to get it, but I don’t.
Luck of the Irish
Do you think it’s appropriate for Tim McVeigh to bomb a federal building? Hey, what do you think?
Do you think it’s appropriate that the Irish guys in my neighborhood get falling down drunk?
Do you think Gerry Adams has said something stupid in his life and you should have to comment upon that?
Do you think Matt Hale’s calling Judge Lefkow a Jewish Conspirator was appropriate?
Well, one person is less popular than George Bush in Illinois
Dick Cheney–three points below Bush’s 36% approval
Obama has the mirror image with 62% approval, 30% disapproval.
The interesting thing about Bush’s numbers? He had held on to 80%+ approval amongst Republicans in many national surveys. In Illinois, his Republican approval is at 62%.
The issue numbers are as bad if not worse.
Bad News for Republicans
Blagojevich is going to lose big downstate, right?
Not so much as of today.
| Blagojevich | Topinka | Undecided | |||||
| CHICAGO/COOK | 55% | 27% | 18% | ||||
| COLLAR | 32% | 50% | 18% | ||||
| CENTRAL | 44% | 37% | 19% | ||||
| SOUTHERN | 46% | 36% | 18% |
He’s ahead in every area except the Collar Counties. Up by 10 downstate–now, let’s presume he’ll lose downstate–he’s not going to get killed there from the looks of it.
More Bad News for Eisendrath
What I consider the key number for a primary challenge isn’t that bad for Blagojevich. Sixty-four percent of Democratic voters think he is doing an excellent or good job. Certainly, you want it stronger and those aren’t great numbers within your own party for a general election, but in a primary, that’s very tough to beat especially with all of the institutional support in the corner of the incumbent.
Morning After Pill Polling
One of the more interesting things about issue polling versus candidate polling is how a candidate can affect the policy position of respondents. Nationally, a rule to require pharmacies to fill birth control prescriptions was around 80%. The support in Illinois in terms of Blagojevich issuing such an order, the overall approval of the move is 62%, 27% disapprove and 11% are unsure.
I’d still want to be on Blagojevich’s side on this issue because women and independents are in favor of the rule and the only key group opposed is Republicans who aren’t voting for him anyway. Even then, Republicans only oppose it with a plurality of 49%.
All He Needs is Someone to Run Against
Rick Pearson wrote a weekend column on G-Rod’s strategy for reelection and it’s running against the Georges: Ryan and Bush.
It’s a good strategy. Sure, it might annoy you, but it’s an effective strategy.
In a state that has turned increasingly Democratic, Blagojevich signaled that he planned to take political advantage of the highly visceral reactions Illinoisans have to both men, who conveniently are less popular with voters in the state than he is
Emphasis mine.