By this time next Wednesday, we should know who will be our national leader for the next four years. That is unless there are voting irregularities in Florida. But, the end is in sight.
The Hound knows this not because Election Day is Nov. 4, but that the attacks are getting weirder and weirder. Such as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin being attacked for wearing about $150,000 worth of clothes purchased by the Republican National Committee after she was tapped by John McCain as his running mate. Did folks want her running around in plaid flannels and Levis on the campaign trail?
Really, if clothes make the man, how about the woman? Pols use campaign funds all the time to pay for a lot of their expenses. In Illinois, some have been known to purchase Chicago Bulls playoff tickets or Chicago Bears season tickets. Few donors ask what their campaign donations will be used for. Give the hockey mom a break. She's got enough to worry about being so close to a rising Russia.
The other weird attempt at the end game is people wanting to see Barack Obama's birth certificate. The Internet buzz is he wasn't born in Hawaii, but some foreign locale. That, according to these conspiracy theorists, would make him ineligible to be president because he was not born in the U.S., one of the requirements for high office.
That won't pass the smell test, let alone the constitutional law test. If his mother's an American, it doesn't matter if he was born in Andorra or Argentina. He's an American.
To prove that, he worked for the Chicago Democratic machine. They research these type of things as the late political scientist Milton Rakove noted when he showed up to volunteer for a political campaign. "We don't want nobody nobody sent," Rakove was told by a ward heeler.
The same could be said for presidential candidates. Yup, the end is in sight. And none too soon for The Hound.
The power brokers are pulling out all the stops to make sure Illinois voters don't call for a constitutional convention on Nov. 4. We've already been warned lobbyists would be a major force in any con-con (like they don't currently have influence among lawmakers?). Now, the opponents are aiming for our pocketbooks.
Like Chicken Little, these special interest folks are saying a constitutional convention would cost more than $100 million at a time when the state is lucky it can afford blacktop to patch potholes. Except, the non-partisan Legislative Research Unit figures the cost to be between $14 million to $23 million. That's less than $2 for every Illinoisan. It costs that much for a good latte these days. It doesn't even buy a good-sized bag of chewy bones for The Hound.
Regardless of the cost, it would be worth it to get rid of "pay to play" politics in the state and have recall provisions for public officials. Actually, The Hound has a whole plethora of causes a con-con can address --- including life sentences for those who practice dog fighting --- but the wish list can wait until after voters make the right move to improve this state and make the con-con call.
It's either that or keep letting them pass out political bon bons --- let alone plums --- to friends, contributors and fellow players. You make the call.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich discounts a recent poll that showed his popularity ratings were lower than journalists. Lower than used car salesmen. Lower than Wall Street bankers. Lower than President Bush. He's kidding, right?
Blago's approval rating, according to the poll, hovered around 13 percent. His rating could be lower, could be higher depending on the margin of error. The Hound, being a pessimist, figures they're lower. Blago's ratings are lower than governors who have done time ---Otto Kerner and Dan Walker, both Democrats, and George Ryan, currently a guest of a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
But Blago said Friday it's not the reported federal investigation looking at everything Blagojevich, including his wife's real estate dealings, or his job as governor. People don't
like him because of the current state of the economy.
He may have something there. Under his watch, we've lost lots of businesses to Wisconsin because the governor of the Badger State returns phone calls from company owners. The state's jobless rate increased across Illinois in September. Lake County's rate skipped from 4.7 percent in September 2007, to 6.3 percent last month. That's not good, Governor Rod. Did The Hound mention the state has lost 14,000 jobs since January?
Meanwhile, Illinois home sales were down 8.7 percent in September and the median housing price dove 9.7 percent to $179,650. A year ago, housing prices were $199,000. Still not good.
So, the governor thinks people don't like him because of the economy. People don't like George Bush because of the economy. Illinoisans don't like Blago, because, well, he's just Blago.
Except for seniors. He gave them free mass transit rides. But those seniors will turn on you faster than a rattlesnake. Things aren't looking good for a third term in 2010.
Remember this exchange between Bruce Willis and Joel Haley Osment in "The Sixth Sense":
Osment: I see dead people.
Willis: In your dreams? While you're awake? Dead people like, in graves? In coffins?
Osment: Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.
Willis: How often do you see them?
Osment: All the time. They're everywhere.
So it must have been when Lake County Clerk workers started going through those voter registration forms --- about 1,000 of them --- some union member and voter registrar dropped off in downtown Waukegan the other day. The Hound expects dead people to leave Graceland Cemetery, near Wrigley Field, on Election Day and vote in Cook County, but Lake County has always been a different matter.
Guess Democratic Machine politics finally made their way up here to light blue Lake County. The silly Hound thought we were above such funny goings on here. Wrong, again.
The question, though, is what will authorities do about this apparent attempt to undermine the electoral process after these registration forms which listed dead people, even pets, were turned in to the clerk's office? Supposedly, there's a criminal investigation going on. The Hound hopes they sniff out what exactly went wrong.
Hopefully, before Election Day. The Hound would hate to be in line ready to cast a vote standing next to dead people. That would be creepy and it would be days after Halloween.
It appears you can take the candidate out of Illinois, but you can't take the Illinois out of the candidate. Or at least his campaign staff. The Hound is referring to Democrat Barack Obama's insistence the media pay to play to cover the candidate's Election Night victory party at Millennium Park in the big city.
The Obama camp is rolling in dough, yet they want to charge news organizations nearly $1,900 to buy space up close and personal. Photographers will be charged $410 for access and a seat in the heated press filing center will cost $935. The Hound would be in the cheap seats, by the way, and that includes power, cable TV, Internet access and, the only thing that really matters --- food.
There is no charge for reporters in a standing room outdoor press area which may have obstructed views. You know, like those posts in the grandstand at Wrigley Field. Did The Hound mention the election night event at a public venue is free and open to the public? Except the public probably doesn't get food.
The media normally pays for telecommunications services, but this is the first time The Hound has heard of charging people to cover a campaign event. Us freeloading media types usually get gratis passes to cover rock bands and sporting events.
But remember, this is Illinois where Chicago Democrats have had that "pay for play" mantra so long it's become inbred. Obama's advisers should rethink this latest ploy. If Joe Biden's right about being tested after taking office --- if the duo is elected --- they might want the media on their side in the first 100 days.
That media post-election honeymoon could be quite short if this is what they're up to. Hopefully, Illinois' pay for play politics won't be exported to Washington...
The Hound has been beating up the Wall Street bankers, credit managers, the Bush administration and certain members of Congress who went along with the financial meltdown we've been nervous about the past few weeks. Like the rest of you, The Hound's mistress' 401(k) is now a 104(k). She says her early retirement target date is now age 86. But then The Hound did some research.
Boy, are we a bunch of stupids in this country, living on borrowed time --- borrowed money time, that is.
Blame Wall Street? Hah, look in the mirror, rubes. Check out these facts:
1) Today, the average American household has $8,565 in credit-card debt, a figure 15 percent higher than it was in 2000, when President Bush was narrowly elected.
2) Nearly 30 percent of the U.S. national debt --- $2.6 trillion --- is held by foreign governments. The top four? Japan, China, United Kingdom, Brazil. How did the Carnivale country get to own a piece of the U.S. rock?
3) Forty-three percent of U.S. households spend more than they earn annually, therefore living on credit card debt. See No. 1 above.
4) Forty-four percent of American households say they live "pay check to pay check" --- up from 37 percent in 2006.
5) About 42 percent of U.S. households lack enough liquid savings to support themselves for three months.
So the next time you want to blame politicos for the state of your personal economy or even the nation's economy, remember the 1992 Clinton campaign mantra: It's the economy, stupid. In this case, as we approach Election Day 2008, it's plural.
So don't expect Uncle Sugar to bail you out. You have no credit or capital and are close to having no collateral. Welcome to the Third World.
The Hound has kept muzzled on the Kirk-Seals race, but that irritating Seals commercial with the unidentified Iraqi vet was the last straw. Officeseekers always decry those negative ads and voters say they don't like them, but pols sure keep those ad agencies busy with them.
Unless you've been in a coma the past few weeks, Dan Seals of Wilmette, who doesn't live in the 10th District, is running for the second time against incumbent Republican Mark Kirk who lives in Highland Park which is about smack-dab in the middle of the district. The contest is getting downright nasty. Dueling polls show a close race on the Nov. 4 horizon with Seals hoping for some coattails from presidential candidate and fellow Illinoisan, Barack Obama.
The ad The Hound referred to has been airing frequently, attempting to tie Kirk to the Bush administration's Iraq policy. It doesn't identify the veteran, how long he served in Iraq, which unit or what his military occupational speciality was while he was there. He also accuses Kirk of voting to cut off Iraq veterans' health care once they've returned. The Hound wants to know: Where'd they find this guy? Does he live in the 10th District? Can they find any more? Why didn't his fellow GIs frag this guy when they had the chance? What branch of the service did Dan Seals serve?
It has been determined this veteran Seals discovered either agrees or has ties to a group which believes the 9/11 attacks are part of a government coverup. The 911truth.org alleges the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon somehow were a shadowy conspiracy. Sounds like talking points for a Section 8 out of a war zone.
But the silliest of the commercial is maintaining Kirk is anti-veteran. Nobody's anti-veteran. Veterans vote. Veterans know Kirk saved the North Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center by partnering with the Navy. Besides, The Hound will take an astronaut Jim Lovell --- a real American hero who has endorsed the congressman --- over an unamed, unranked GI.
Being attacked, Kirk has started his own set of negative ads about Seals' last full-time job being with General Electric and how the company was involved in the subprime meltdown. That's a stretch, too. We'll see come Nov. 4 if negative political ads carry the day.
The financial markets are in turmoil, we're fighting a two-nation war and the two presidential candidates have questionable skeletons in their pasts. How come some tougher questions weren't asked of these candidates the other night in Nashville? Those were the best questions submitted from the Internet and those in the "town hall" audience at Belmont University? The Hound doubts that.
What were the ones moderator Tom Brokaw was holding back? Were there questions about William Ayers or Charles Keating? Perhaps Brokaw knew neither John McCain or Barack Obama had the answers to questions dealing with the nation's recession-like economy. And, weren't some of those questions asked and answered during the first debate which dealt with foreign policy? Sure sounded like they had.
While polls declared Obama the winner, The Hound believes neither won. Talk about a stalemate. McCain calls Obama, "That one", while Obama reminded us McCain sang "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" at one time. It would have had more effect if he had reiterated that to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann". McCain claimed Obama's proposals are like "nailing Jell-O to the wall." Obama countered with this zinger, referring to McCain's bus: "I think the Straight Talk Express lost a wheel on that one."
Maybe the last presidential debate set for Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in New York, dealing with domestic and economic issues, will answer some of the tougher issues facing the nation. The Hound is waiting for that one defining moment to bring everything into election focus. That one hasn't happened yet. There's still time, candidates.
