What is Bill Foster afraid of?

Mike, the Beacon endorsed Hastert and he didn’t debate once in the last cycle that I know of.

Regardless, I think the voters will be satisfied with five upcoming joint appearances of one sort or another. Plus they just debated on Sunday too. You are clear that it's not enough for you, but could we at least note he isn't pulling a Hastert on us?

Plus, I think you and Dave Parro may be in disagreement here. He happens to think editorial boards are better equipped than voters to evaluate candidates:

"It is an interesting idea for newspapers to stop endorsing. I would argue, however, that the one thing we have that the general public does not is direct access to the candidates. We have the ability to get them in the same room together and ask them questions. We follow their campaigns from beginning to end when many voters only start paying attention at the end.In many cases (such as this one), we also have relationships with the candidates dating back years and know their character beyond scripted public appearances."

I will renew my request that you note the partisan nature of blogs you link off to. Just saying liberal or conservative is quite enough. One other thing, you may want to use the “permanent link” in your hyperlinks. Just linking off to the blog won’t help readers find the quoted material once the blog owner updates with additional entries. My understanding is that the permanent link takes the reader directly to the applicable entry, and it typically uses an archive area which lessens the impact on the main server. Permanent links can usually be found as a time/date stamp near the bottom of blog entries.

I wouild like to know why Jim Oberweis feels dairy cows deserve healthcare but not people...

Jim Oberweis supports health care for all cows in his business.
But the Chicago Tribune points out Jim Oberweis is against employers providing health
care insurance for people - he says employees should go it alone. Cows get guaranteed
health care while people go without. Should we treat cows better than people? Yes, it
sounds strange, but you know where Jim Oberweis stands.

CETERA REPLIES:

Rob,

* Just because I (or the newspaper) disagrees with Mr. Foster's position on debates doesn't necessarily reflect what the newspaper's endorsement will be. I can tell you (after just finishing the endorsement session with the two candidates) we haven't made any decisions yet.

* I was disappointed that Hastert refused to debate, but I didn't have this outlet to express my disappointment.

* Dave and I can disagree. It's allowed. :)

* I will make sure to label the political affiliation of blogs I link to (if I know them)

Follow up on my last post, here is the excerpt from the referenced coverage re: Oberweis's and Foster's
postions on healthcare

On health care, Foster said there should be a universal program that could include a larger role for the federal government and a role for private enterprise. Oberweis said employer-provided health insurance should be eliminated in favor of a system where consumers use tax incentives to purchase their own insurance and have health savings accounts.

Much ado about nothing. We've heard more than enough from the candidates in the special election.

Yes, of course every time they reference a blog with a political viewpoint different than your own they must identify it's background, because no one would ever actually follow the links and figure this stuff out for themselves.

You know if the Foster campaign had just said
"You know we don't think it does our candidate any good to do public forums." it wouldn't be a story.

But this whole thing about endorsement meetings ending up on the web and that is good enough is just silly.

If he doesn't want to face John Laesch or Jim Oberweis and talk about his ideas in public, how is he going to do on the floor of the Congress or in committee?

Seems to me if you were running for congress you would want these opportunities to let the voters get to know you, but then again it is easier to try and frame who you are and who the other guy is with TV ads.

Apparently Foster's strategists are telling him to coast on into the election, fearful that their candidate will say something in one of the debates that could upset the apple cart. Look for Oberweis to really lay it on in the remaining days with tons of mailings and commercials. Everything will boil down to tunrout on election day. Very close.

Mr. Cetera,

Were you perhaps referring to this poll from the Global Strategy Group by chance:

Foster continues to hold a significant lead (47%-25%) among the critical segment of voters who identify themselves as Independents. Foster has also succeeded in consolidating his party behind him following the primary, as 89% of self-identified Democrats now say they will vote for the businessman and scientist. On the flip side, Oberweis' biggest problem is his failure to consolidate his party following the negative and divisive Republican primary. Just 76% of self identified Republicans say they will vote for Oberweis, a number which is less surprising when we see an astonishing 11% of Republicans who are STRONGLY unfavorable to him, a number which has not changed at all since the first survey we conducted (an additional 2% hold somewhat unfavorable views).

It would be interesting to see the cross tabs and breakouts of this (and other) recent polls to better
gauge and evaluate the data, results, demographics and methodology employed in these surveys.

Wow 14th Dist Voter....

Glad to see you obviously neutral in this whole thing. No wonder you react the way you do when anyone questions Foster.

Considering you guy out spent his main opponent 10 to 1 and won by less that .5%

Mike, can you tell us who actually makes the endorsement decision for the Beacon?

I know you sit in, but do you contribute/write the endorsement?

And if it's a committee, and there is no concensus, who makes the final decision?

Thanks.

What happens when partisan polls come out, however, is that we don't get to see all the information. This was Foster's poll and Global Strategy Group is a Democratic polling firm. Never assume the partisan polls are accurate because they will oversample some aspect of the poll to shift a certain way.

But the bigger problem here is that Foster just backed out of a forum where the PUBLIC had an opportunity to ask questions. That is basically slapping the people of this district, saying that their questions don't matter because they don't write stories about Mr. Foster. Not good form at all.

CETERA REPLIES:

Rob,

In general, endorsement decisions are made by the full editorial board (or whichever members are available to discuss at the time a decision is made). Our editorial board includes Editor-Publisher Rick Nagel, Managing Editor Denise Crosby, Associate Editor John Russell, Associate Editor Mike Cetera, Opinions Editor Dave Parro, News Editor Tom Johnson and Design Editor Jenn Mesenbrink. Fred Lebolt, the vice president in charge of our news group, also is a member of the board, although he participates infrequently.

Dave Parro is responsible for writing the endorsements, with input from other editorial board members, in particular Nagel and Crosby.

We attempt to reach a consensus on our endorsements. However, the board is not necessarily a democratic institution. On rare occasions, the big bosses on the board will overrule the rest of the board. I think you'll find this editorial board is run much the same as editorial boards in other newspapers.

In the case of the Foster-Oberweis endorsement, we met briefly after the interview on Tuesday. No decision was made. I expect we'll meet again Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest) to discuss our opinions on the candidates and make our arguments for or against someone. The endorsement is planned for Sunday.

MC:

Agreed, polls pollsters and polling data do need to be evaluated as to their
source, how the questions are phrased and who was sampled. Goes without
saying. Am well aware of these factors, as are most folks like yourself.
One reason I mentioned seeing the cross tabs and don't just take the
'cover sheet' assessments as gospel. "Devil is in the details' as they say.

Rather like that old bit from 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' re: the
answer to life, the universe and everything else.

It would have been better for Foster to participate in the Elgin forum.
Of course, Dennis Hastert participated in every opportunity to debate and
similar voter forums with his opponents during his tenure. (not)

OneMan:
Far as neutrality goes you, Clark Kent, and MichaelClayton also appear
to 'have a dog in this hunt'. Go figure that, ehh?

Let's hope the General Election campaign will bring a fresh perspective and
new opportunities for voter participation and in-depth media coverage on all
sides.

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch. Liberty is well
armed sheep disputing the vote" Ben Franklin

"Let's hope the General Election campaign will bring a fresh perspective and new opportunities for voter participation and in-depth media coverage on all sides."

thanks 14th... we hope that includes the Beacon as well.

We saw oberweis and foster on channel 11 last night. We were not impressed/happy/inspired by either of them...final analysis though: Advantage goes to Foster .

CETERA REPLIES:

Scout (or anyone),

What would you like to see the paper do more of (or differently) for the general election?

I would like to see the Beacon (and other papers) to stop endorsing candidates.

If they insist, as Parro does in an earlier post here, that editorial boards remain a better judge of a candidate, than put a name(s) to the endorsement. Let us know who is really endorsing whom. This is especially relevant if the endorsement is not unanimous.

Can you guys put up unedited clips of your Board interviews?

Readers can not see whether or not you challenge the candidates on their claims. For example, Jim Oberweis claims progress in Iraq…did anyone ask him why he thinks a doubling of US military deaths in January (over December – 40 versus 23) is considered progress? Did anyone ask him what political progress has been made in the context of reduced violence?

Also, reading Andre's reporting today, especially regarding the issue of Iraq, I was struck by the lack of familiarity the he showed regarding Foster's position. You guys follow these candidates non-stop, so I was amazed to see Andre say their positions on Iraq mirror each other when in fact they couldn't be further apart. Mike, you noted in your post the lack of clarity by Foster, but quickly picked up on ‘what he meant’ which Andre seems to have missed.

Foster is right, change the policy, and then leverage military experts (active duty, retired, and even civilians) to map out a safe and orderly withdrawal strategy from Iraq. This is far different than what Oberweis and President Bush propose, which is simply more of the same. Conditional funding and other legislative tactics are being used by Congressional Democrats today to try to affect a policy change. Foster is simply aligning himself with the current Congressional efforts which most Americans favor in poll after poll.

PARRO REPLIES:

Rob,

Those video clips are unedited, except for the black-screen transition between the candidates talking. We ran the first half of the interview like a debate, with no follow-up questions, and the candidates had two minutes to give answers and 30 seconds each for rebuttal. The video clips on the Web site are their answers in full.

The second half of the session was an open Q&A with less structure. We may post some of that online, but it would be edited.

As far as your earlier claim that I disagree with Mike on the value of debates, that's quite a leap from my actual statement. I was answering your question about why newspapers should endorse. I think newspapers are in a unique position because of their familiarity with the candidates and issues, but that doesn't mean voters shouldn't get the chance to see the candidates for themselves and make up their own minds. A newspaper endorsement should be just one consideration for a voter. Debates are a crucial part of the process.

Thanks Dave.

I for one would love to see everything you've got. Even though I will vote for Foster, I find great value in all of these candidate exchanges, particularly the questions and follow-ups.

I understand your point and thank you for the response. However, I would point out that voters aren't being denied anything. They have debated (twice in the last three days) and will meet again in various situations. We can all differ on what quantity is acceptable. But I still think it's a vast improvement over 2006 and that voters should be made aware of this good news.

I'm looking forward to reading the endorsement.

I would point everyone to this blog entry, which is from a Democratic observer of local politics. It addresses Foster's debate schedule...

http://www.wurfwhile.com/blog/2008/02/27/response-to-oneman-about-bill-foster-debating-in-il-14/

I just received another annoying recorded call from the DNC that blasted Jim Oberweis for investing in Asia. It's this type of ignorance that really ticks me off. Oberweis Asset Management has two international funds. For over thirty years they have managed a mutual fund that primarily in small, rapidly growing, domestic companies. You could check the annual reports for some of the companies that benefited from those investments.

The foreign funds are structured just for that reason, just as the three domestic funds invest primarily in US companies. The assets in these funds come from individuals and pension funds that want to diversify their portfolios. If no one wanted to invest in these areas then there wouldn't be any money there to manage.

This is mud slinging at it's finest. ETC has Corporate offices all over the world, has anybody been making an issue out of that? And furthermore, through OAM and the dairy, Jim has actually created jobs here in the 14th District and not in Wisconsin. I think job creation is fantastic no matter where in the states it occur. But if Bill Foster wants to make a campaign issue why aren't people asking questions about ETC? What percentage of ETC's products are actually fabricated here in the US? Where are the components manufactured? If Bill spent 25 years at Fermi Lab, how long was he actually at ETC or did a substantial amount of the growth come from his brothers hard work? I'm guessing that Bill was probably only at ETC for about five years at best and that was a long time ago.

If this has become the cornerstone of his campaign (given that he's had to flip-flop on his Iraq position, and as a muddled medical care stance) then he's certain on shaky ground. Why doesn't the news media actually ask some hard questions about what his role at ETC? Obviously that would be difficult since he seems shy about answering questions.