Hey Illinois DUers, what do you guys think of JACK!!!!! ........ryan.....

[sjgman9]

I think he quit Goldman-Sachs to teach at that high school as a pure political stunt. Isnt he more conservative than Bush?

I cant wait for Obama to cream him in a debate

[kanrok]

1. On November 2, Illinois will be one "Jack" off

Jack is a D O U C H E B A G. He DIVORCED Jeri Ryan! His (sealed) divorce file is purported to contain information about "Jack's" pressuring his ex into multiple sex partners. Class act that Jack Ryan!

[sjgman9]

2. I've heard the rumors

I'm just shocked he divorced Jeri Ryan! She's a babe!

Also, the name Ryan is still toxic in Illinois. I guess the Illinois GOP will never learn

[krkaufman]

19. He's an idgit

I thought you were joking; I had no clue his wife was *that* Jeri Ryan.

Gotta wonder about his judgement, for sure.

[Nailzberg]

7. His divorce records could be irrelevant.

Those allegations were made by an opponent during the final days of the primary race, last ditch effort. It could be 100% false. A judge has appointed a "court referee" to read the sealed portions of the divorce and decide what info has relevance to the child's welfare. This referee will then unseal what can be unsealed. This is in a Los Angeles court right now.

I think it is a bad idea for Illinois Dems to count on either the "Ryan" name, or the divorce papers to deliver the victory. When the California courts say there is something there, then Ryan will be dead in the water, and we can celebrate. Until then let's focus on his lack of legislative experience and his ultra-conservative views.

FOR something, not against someone else. Otherwise, we'll have our asses handed to us.

[Nailzberg]

3. Political move, or a mid-life crisis

I'm sick of him playing it up as an "inner city school." He taught at a catholic prep school. Sure, it was in the inner city, but he doesn't deserve the credit that a Chicago Public School teacher deserves. He had it easy.

I wouldn't know if he's more conservative than Bush, but he is at the least, AS conservative as Bush, which is pretty darn conservative.

He's a good person for Obama to go against. At the beginning of the cycle, many Republicans believed Ryan was too right to win the general and Dems thought Obama was too left. Well, now there's two candidates who were both thought too extreme to win, and one of them will.

I think the real battleground will be Lake and DuPage counties. And Obama's message has substance, while Ryan's campaign has been "support the policies of President Bush." Substance gives Obama the edge.

[sjgman9]

4. Vote count

Obama got more votes than all the Repub candidates combined!

Dupage county has a growing Democratic base.

I think all Barack needs to do is keep trumping up his similarities to Paul Simon. Also, Jack dont know Jack about legislating. This race would have been much tougher if Steve Rauschenberger were the GOP nominee.

[Nailzberg]

8. Irrelevant in the primary.

It only means the GOP base wasn't excited enough to vote in the primary. The GOP bases is never excited to vote in primaries, they follow front-runners. Ryan had a clear lead, and Bush has no opposition, so why vote?

Jack is a bad choice for the GOP, it gives Obama a better edge. I agree, Douchenberger would have probably been their best candidate. But that's not how Republicans think.

With the Presidency on the line in November, the voters will turnout. The party voters will fall in line. Obama has the left, Ryan has the right. It's gonna be about GOTV, and selling the message to the middle of the road voters.

This is an easy Dem pick-up, but focusing on the Ryan name and his divorce could fumble the ball. You don't throw a hail mary when you're up 7 points.

[Cocoa]

14. the GOP primary was more competitive than the dem one

they had a bunch of candidates with a good shot at winning, the dems really only had two.

The discrepancy b/w the dem votes and the GOP votes was overwhelming. I think even Hynes, who finished WAY behind Obama, beat out Ryan.

[sjgman9]

15. What candidates?

Cocoa, tell me?

Oberweis was this anti-immigrant demogauge.
Borling was this pro-abortion military guy with Nato experience.
Ryan was this young guy who taught at an inner city private school.
McKenna was this guy who wanted to send a primary challenge to fitzgerald. McKenna was this dude who owned a paper factory.
Rauschenberger posed the most serious threat because he has the legislatove agenda to match Obama's

Kathuria was intersting because of his ethnicity (Sikh). His background and business history was sketchy. He was in a legal battle with the Chicago Tribune? because of defamation?

Then there's that old retiree named Norm Hill. I dont know why he bothered to show up.

Then there's that guy named Wright fron downnstate. He sure flamed out.


Let's talk about the Democratic Side.

There's Barack Obama, who clearly is a Democratic dream of a senator.
Blair Hull, if you forget his messy marriage history, is a guy who believes in whatever he can pay for.
Dan Hynes is an able state treasurer, and the Chicago Machine can surely help him if he were the General election guy for the Dems.
Maria Pappas does a great job with her office in City hall, but she isnt known state wide. Although she does do a nice joh twirling the baton in the parades.
Geri Chico did well with the City of Chicago schools. It must be addwed that under his management, the longtime law firm Altheimer and Grey went bankrupt. That aint too good.

Then there's that black lady, Joyce Washington, who was a healthcare exective. I dont remeber her being that fanstatic in the debates that I watched.

If there's anyone else, I dont remember them.

Look, Barack had to go through a tougher primary than Jack.....ryan

The Illinois Democratic party is in ascendance. Democrats own illinois. Heck , even if you wanna go combine(TM, John Kass), Hastert pulls in the GOP influence. Look at Senator Durbin, the dude is now nominated for a high ranking position for the Democratic National Committee. Go Durbin!!!


Obama seriously will kick the living crap out of Ryan. I love Illinois for being such a Democratic state. And this is the Land of Lincoln!



Shit, I bet Lincoln would be repulsed at his party today

[Cocoa]

16. I was talking about turnout

the republicans should have had at least as much turnout as the dems, based on closeness of the race, but they were way off. Illinois is going democratic, big time, probably permanently.

[sjgman9]

17. turnout my ass

the IlGOP is fractured and destroyed. The ILDems simply outvoted the ILGoppers 2-1.


Also, some ILGoppers realize that their party will be outvoted, so they stay home. Sounds like a self-defeating prophecy for them.

Still, Illinois Dems, get you asses out and vote!

[Nailzberg]

18. My observations

We had some really good choices in the primary, which the GOP did not have. They had plenty of candidates, but Ryan came out well to the right, and he did it fast. He played to the base, and no one else ever really got a chance. Oberwies only made a dent due to name recognition, and the ability to flood the airwaves with his dairy ads.
But GOP primaries are very different than Dem primaries.

Democrats are the family that you see fighting at mall over what to eat when they get home. The GOP waits until they are in the car.
Because of that, a GOP front-runner usually stays that way in the primary.

As far as our primary, we several people that would have been good, and we aired the differences.

Barack Obama will do a great job. Many downstate pols say he's a prick, but they mean it respectfully, kinda like the mob, it's business not personal. He gets the job done well, and that sometimes means he has to be prick-ish. But it also means he needs to start playing nice with county chairs.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say Blair Hull is "A guy who believes in whatever he can pay for." He spends money on what he believes in. He has spent lots of money on very progressive issues, mostly notably GLTB and women's health groups. He was also the first candidate to offer Barack his support. His biggest mistake was hiring a consultant that told him not to release the divorce early, instead of putting it out when he wanted to. I wish more wealthy people spent their money the way Hull has.

Hynes is the Comptroller, and very capable of an administrative post, but would have been a fairly mediocre senator. Nobody, including the unions that endorsed him, was energized by his campaign. His highest poll numbers were when he announced his candidacy. Word is he may commit political suicide by challenging Secretary White in 2006.

Pappas does not work for City Hall, she is the Cook County Treasurer. She may be eying a statewide office soon, using this race to help build recognition. Her best chance at a State office, is to take on Judy Baar Topinka. As a woman and a proponent of GLTB issues, Topinka gets support from women and gays. But Pappas could prevent Dem women from crossing the line; that would be a tight race.

Gery Chico did a great job with Paul Vallas at the CPS, and is well respected by Daley for his time as Chief of Staff. The law firm collapse was a liability, but his resume is still pretty solid. I felt he was as impressive, and at times more impressive, than Obama in debates. Strategists believe he is positioning himself in the city in case Daley decides not to run again.

I love Nancy Skinner, and I hope if we ever get a liberal cable news network that she gets a show. Not so sure if she would have been good in office, but I really admire the way she got on trains or her car and drove around the state. She was downstate just as much as Pappas or Chico were, which says a lot when you see her campaign finances.

I think the Democrats had a far more interesting primary, and that electricity really churned out the vote. But comparing the Primary turnouts is not a good barometer for the General election. Dems are frustrated at the GOP control at the federal level, and that got us higher primary turnout. The GOP has federal control, so their voters didn't take the time out of the day to vote. But they will be there in November. Obama is clearly in position to win, but November is still a long way off.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

5. And in this corner...the next Democratic Senator from Illinois...

Barack Obama!


And his lovely family:


I think folks in this state are done for a while with pols named Ryan...looking forward to George's trial when it starts next year...
:evilgrin:

[sjgman9]

6. George Ryan: Convicted felon

I like the sound of that.

[gatlingforme]

20. yes the moron has one year to figure out what to do

Fitzgerald is going to eat him up I love that guy (Fitz) George is a dead duck. I can't wait. I am drooling.

[newyawker99]

21. Hi gatlingforme!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Donkeyboy75]

9. Just talking to Mrs. Donkeyboy about that yesterday.

It was clearly a political stunt. He did it for what...one year? If he really believed in it he would still be there instead of trying to run for an office he can't win.

[Norquist Nemesis]

10. Another slick, evil Republican but his divorce stuff is juicy

It's pretty obvious the teacher thing is just a ploy. He's in a private school for pete's sake! I wondered why all the students in the ads were black males wearing ties. The picture didn't seem to jive with the inner city school message.

The story about his divorce is out there though...google Jack Ryan divorce and look in groups.

[Nailzberg]

11. Key word - Story

Obama kills him on the resume and on issues. Let's stay focused.

[sjgman9]

12. Resume and issues

Both these guys are ivy-league educated
obama: columbia and harvard
ryan: dartmouth and harvard

obama simply has spent better use of his life than ryan.
i feared rauschenberger because he can match the legistlative experience that obama has. ryan has no legislative experience. obama did a lot of good stuff in the legislator.

ryan reminds me of norm coleman of minnesota. we dont need another norm coleman.

i'm amazed at how big obama won in the primaries. lets keep playing up the paul simon bit

[davsand]

13. A race against Ryan is no cakewalk.

Yeah, his name is unfortunate, and yeah, he's the guy who divorced 7 of 9 (Gerri Ryan.) He's also a pretty young white guy. Large parts of Illinois want that image instead of a qualified guy who's seen as progressive that happens to be brown...

Obama ran a very smart primary race, and he managed to win it with divided labor and a serious lack of name recognition going into it. THAT tells me volumes about how savvy he really is about politics. Word is, this was HIS campaign strategy--not some behind the scenes guy--and it was VERY well done. He knows what he's doing, and his decision to win the race in Chicago and the collar counties was exactly the right one.

I know that labor will be out for the General election to help Obama in every possible way, and they are NOT gonna be split on it. Part of what happened in that primary was the fact that Obama was SO good with his labor record a lot of guys who might have ordinarily followed the labor endorsement of Hynes were really torn--they LIKED Obama a lot. You are NOT gonna see that at all in the General, it will be 100% Obama.

Last weekend I met Obama's downstate guy (he worked with Gep in the Presidential primary) and I was most impressed with him. They are working it now--they are organizing it for downstate--and I think they are gonna jump out early and hard. They ran a primary focused on Chicago area, but now they realize they have GOT to win statewide.

They recognize that Ryan is not a softball candidate, and they ARE taking it seriously. I think Obama's comment was something about not opening up the champagne and firing up the cigars at halftime, and he's dead right about that.

Ryan is a little toad, and he's not all that well regarded in the Illinois GOP, from what I can tell. I think I remember hearing that the GOP is STILL split right now because Ryan pissed off the Oberweise camp in the later days of the primary. IF that is true, Ryan is already hurting because Oberweise might not have won--but he DOES pull from the mainline GOP voters.

I think it'd be a huge mistake to write off Ryan, but I also feel pretty confident that Obama and his campaign are gonna be on top of it.

Laura

[KharmaTrain]

22. Can Ryan Confuse His Image?

That what he appeared to do to win the GOOP nomination. His first commercials make him look fun and a guy you could "do beers with". I think that first impression hit enough people...especially outside suburban Chicago, to get him the nomination.

Not long ago I spoke with a local pol...a Repugnican...who worked for another campaign who had nothing but bad things to say about Ryan and how phony he was/is. How he bribed various country chairs for endorsements and bought off friendly local media that sapped coverage of their candidate. And who say money doesn't buy access. And it appears Ryan, personally, has access to some deep pockets...which could be a problem for Obama.

I'm curious to hear from our downstate friends what type of poltical ads you're seeing. Up here it's very quiet and I expect it to be until October (it's just too damn expensive), but how about either Springfield-Champaign-Danville or Peoria/Bloomington or down yonder in Jackson County.

Also, what's the local TV coverage like? Especially since our friends at Sinclair own stations in Champaign, Springfield, St. Louis & Paducah (Southern Illinois). I saw clips of this Mark Hyman ass...sheesh...do you actually have to see this piece of humanoid waste? How does the rest of the newscast rate. Hell, maybe this is worth a string of its very own.

Cheers.