Bush Still Not on the Ballot

I can think of worse things for the Illinois Republicans. Namely both Bush and Ryan being off the ballot or essentially dead, but that is about it. There is currently a fight over the legislation. One bill that would have expanded state locations for voter registration and lessened the time to register was never brought up in the Senate–see DJWinfo for the details.

The Leader is making up their version of reality again:

The RNC chose to have their convention the first week of September, navigating around the Olympics and Democratic National Convention.

This is,to put it mildly, BS.

The Democrats originally set their date for July 18th. Then the Republicans set the date of August 29th – September 2nd. Then the Democrats moved their date back to July 26th. The Republicans would have had three weeks in that period to schedule the convention before the beginning of the Olympics.

Why? Trying to get advantage from September 11th. Nice. It’ll backfire too.

Bush should get on the ballot, but the fair thing would be to allow other parties to get on the ballot in an easier manner. That won’t affect Dems, but see if the Republicans will vote for a bill that is fair.

Of course, if you take Tom Roeser’s argument seriously, the Republicans could end up with neither a Presidential Candidate nor a Senate candidate on the ballot. Given there is no manner for replacement if the Ryan campaign does fall and the judiciary isn’t friendly, the Republicans have a real problem.

I doubt they are too worried about either campaign–both seem pretty much doomed to many at this point. But having no one at the top of the ballot makes it even harder to get the base out to vote. And this year has a feel of it of Republicans needing every last vote. The Democratic base is energized and angry and to get them out to vote against George Bush isn’t going to take much–even if he isn’t on the ballot. In addition, the base is especially excited about the Senate Candidate-Barack Obama. He’s a rock star in politics. Look at the press fawning over him (I do too).

Republicans have a President who is unpopular in Illinois, a Senate Candidate who can’t seem to shoot straight and several swing seats they’d like to pick up. But if the leaners don’t show up because they are discouraged with the chances of the President and the Senate Candidate, the Lege races will be very tough as will the Crane and Weller races. A party needs some excitement to turn out its base–not the people who will crawl over broken glass, but the voters who are generally Republican, but not activists. The Republicans are in danger of having no motivation to those folks destroying their chance at down ballot races and perhaps giving the Dems a few shots at taking more seats.

Lots can happen, but this could develop into the worst case scenario for Republicans.

All that said, some of the Republicans are doing a hell of a job organizing including the Join Cross guys. But generating that kind of excitement from below is tough. Very tough.