The Narrative

I love hearing the screeching—He’s dishonest. He’s as bad as Ryan. He’s going to get indicted. The PEOPLE will rise up and throw him out because he’s so bad. He’s bankrupting the state…

Yeah, I’m talking about Rod. I’m not sure he’s as bad as Ryan, but I’m not much of a fan. The problem is that all of the above could be true, but barring indictment he’ll be Governor next term, though perhaps not for the full term. And by that I mean if he’s indicted in office because given it’s mid-September I’m pretty sure we won’t be seeing any indictments before the election.

Nationally, Markos points out how well Republicans have created narratives to win elections.

In Illinois, Rod is the master of the narrative. It’s perfect for him because he has no attention span so summing it up in two sentences works great.

Rod is fighting for working families health care and education.

Judy is just another corrupt right wing Republican like Bush and the Republican Congress who have screwed up this country.

Rod’s numbers suck, but not nearly as much as Judy’s do. Look at the most recent Trib poll.

Issue advantages:
Education—Rod
Health Care–Rod
Corruption–tie

Who wins in that equation?

Is Rod better on education? I like his general ideas on programs, but his funding scheme is lame and probably won’t pass anyway. Judy’s plan which I haven’t had time to discuss lately, is maybe slightly better on funding, but not by much. Neither deals with the long term financing.

Health Care? Even if All Kids is overblown (and the press releases certainly are) it’s a decent program. If it serves fewer families than thought, then there should be cost savings through managed care. If it serves more it’ll be close to a wash. Judy wants to get rid of it without much of a plan to extend care to those families. Rod legitimately wins on this issue.

Budgeting wise everyone is working on silly numbers that don’t add up, though Rod’s are probably a bit worse given he absolutely won’t raise income or sales taxes. Judy also admits she isn’t sure of the ultimate answer and pretty much admits her final plan would be what she could negotiate with the Four Tops.

But all of this is crap. It doesn’t matter. What is Judy’s theme? Rod’s corrupt.

To Illinois voters a candidate calling another candidate corrupt is about as effective as pointing out they are a politician. Duh.

And Rod follows up with claiming she is corrupt. Are they comparable? Given the Stu Levine leaks are showing one hell of a mess coming down and that’s only one of many investigations, any infractions Judy is guilty of are probably small potatos, but without an indictment it doesn’t matter. Making it worse, Judy screwed up her campaign finance filings giving Rod just the ammunition he needed to neutralize the issue.

And when it comes to making her look right wing and tieing her to Bush, she happily obliges by keep pulling out lines like her rolling pin being an assault weapon.

She has no narrative, instead she makes arguments about corruption that Rod has effectively neutralized with the public and then about state finances….and the voters fall asleep. Curry sort of gets it, but he’s obviously not in charge of messaging day to day.

What makes Judy attractive to political watchers is she admits she doesn’t know everything and she speaks honestly and off the cuff. And it is exactly that which has doomed her candidacy.