Creepy always loses
Swami, what should a citizen think about the defeat of Jim Oberweis by Bill Foster in the Illinois 14th congressional special election on Saturday? Big deal or just another odd political occurrence in a year filled with them? Signed: Hepped up in Highland Park
Ah, where to begin, Hep?
The Democrats will (and have) portrayed this as a clear sign of the pending apocalypse due to befall the Republicans this year. After all, Milk Magnate Oberweis couldn’t hold a seat that Denny Hastert owned for two decades, a comfy span over which he hardly ever failed to get 65 percent of the vote.
But for those who see tidal political changes in the works, there are simpler reasons why Foster won the right to serve until November after Hastert took a powder.
Or more to the point, why Oberweis lost.
Foster was, by most accounts, a well meaning but thin candidate.
Oberweis was seriously, determinedly creepy. Voters are not always smart about their preferences, and they don’t always pick the smartest candidate. But they hardly ever pick the creepy one.
If they had, Ralph Nader would have been president several times.
And Ross Perot, too
Maybe this is a difficult concept to decipher with hard evidence, but Swami knows odd and weird when he see it . Lords knows, Swami has been known to be odd after a few brewskies..
But Oberwies gave off very odd, weird vibes in another way. Like the uncle that the family decides can’t ever watch the kids when no one else is around. It’s not that we have any real evidence that he’s weird, but you just can’t be too careful.
That’s what the people of that district have told Oberweis now a half dozen different times for different elective offices both high and otherwise. He’s spent $9 million of his own money (not to mention several more bushels of GOP green) to lose these races.
We think the people there have spoken with particular clarity, and the word they keep saying with ever louder tones is “NO!!”
But the Democrats shouldn’t (but will, anyway) make more of this than the repudiation of weirdness. First, barely 20 percent of the registered voters went to the polls. Further, what was true last weekend might not be true in the fall when they get to do it all over again.
This is a district that was far more Republican historically than almost any GOP-held congressional seat the Democrats will seek to sweep in November.
And speaking of November, at this moment, Oberweis is penciled to run again against Foster.
Mr. O, get out your checkbook.
Comments
All these Democrates running congress is gunna make us DIE. Ever since the Jackasses (Democrates...well their party symbol is a donkey.) took control of congress we have been hurting economically...it isnt Bush's fault. Yes he may be a bad president in some peoples eyes but if we had a strong congress supporting even the worst president we would be ok. But all these liberals running congress. We might as well be in Iran ourselves. The Democratic party is so sad they can not even decide who they want as thier presidential canadiat. Oboma reall? What good has he done for Illinois besides dealing with Rezko. Oh wait that was a bad thing.
SWAMI SEZ; You need to make sure you don't miss the meds. It's a bad thing. And by the way, Oberweis is still creepy...but he's not the only one, is he Bucko?
Posted by: We are all gunna Die | March 10, 2008 05:18 PM
Among other reasons Oberweis lost again is because he's not a good guy.
I voted for the guy on Saturday simply because his politics is the lesser of 2 evils (Socialism vs socalism-light... we're screwed either way).
Some other reasons he lost:
His campaign fliers that were sent to my house daily were full of lies. One example is the LIE that Lauzen supported a 30% national sales tax. Its called FairTax or something very close to it and you're just not going to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. Include the entire truth, because WE know.
He ran a dirty campaign against Foster, too. Foster never proposed stealing more money (raising taxes) from the middle class as Oberweis claimed. Foster wanted to steal more money (raise taxes) from the (evil) "rich."
And perhaps the biggest reason he lost is because the guy is just a loser. Yes, he runs a successful business, but business sense doesn't always make for good political sense.
Stop throwing mud, you're getting muddy, Mr Oberweis!
And finally:
Treat us like we can count past 10, spell, and properly pronounce words with more than 2 syllables. We're educated, we work, we read (more than just "news"papers), we understand. Don't spoon feed us this worthless drivel.
We want goverment out of our lives! We know government cannot and does not solve problems. We KNOW government ensures its own ability to go on by exacerbating problems. If government could solve problems, our problems would be solved by now or at bare minimum made a tiny bit better.
Espouse these beliefs because then you'll truly be preaching to the choir. You won't have to throw mud. Don't even talk about your opponents.
Swami, you are right on about the creepy part.
Posted by: Matt in Yorkville | March 11, 2008 08:59 AM