And the conventional wisdom is wrong. I’ve spent more than a few hours teeing off on the guy, but he’s a good campaigner and while his numbers are in the toilet, he found the institution with lower approval ratings headed by a Republican President with lower approval in Illinois than Rod has.
Running against Bush and the Republican Congress papers over problems within the party and puts Eisendrath in an uncomfortable position of responding with “I agree, but” (to his credit Eisendrath seems to have already moved around that trap with soundbites about how G-Rod’s criticisms of Bush are Eisendrath’s criticisms of Blagojevich).
Sure, it’s another bogeyman, but bogeymen work when their polling is below his own. Everyone decries negative campaigning, but people keep using it simply because it works.
It also sets up an uncomfortable position for a moderate Republican who wants to hold on to the Republican base that dearly loves Bush, but also wants to attract moderate swing voters who, in Illinois, increasingly dislike Bush. Any sort of attack on All Kids, environmental regulation, child care (an underreported portion of his speech) or the like gets to have the reply be, just like Bush and the Republican Congress…
For the Republican conservatives in Oberweis and Brady, they already buy into the ideology of the Republican Congress so the set-up there is obvious.
It’s good politics and if I were advising him, I’d tell him to do it. He’s never going to have an overwhelming approval rating between now and the election so setting himself up as the better alternative may well be enough. It will be if the Republican nominee is Oberweis, or by miracle Brady. Against Judy, it’ll be the most effective attack on her for a general election audience.
It does give Eisendrath the opening to argue he is both honest and stands for those things, but Eisendrath is pretty much a wild card at this point. Until he shows his hand concerning the money he’ll spend and how well he can quickly connect with voters in under two months, that is moot.
Agreed. An attack on Washington and the distrusted Republican leadership just sounds like a wise political move on Blago’s part. I think Topinka will be the Republican nominee unless she screws up between now and March, and it will be interested to see how she handles a seasoned campainger like Blago.