I am not running for election to public office. But I’m still trying to figure out what in the swine flu is going on out there causing people to want to run for election.
I am not running for election to public office. But I’m still trying to figure out what in the swine flu is going on out there causing people to want to run for election.
I’m willing to dub this affliction the Obama Flu. It is similar to the Jackson Flu that ran through the country 20 years ago. It turned out to be a good thing because all of those people eventually became political leaders and are now…well…being forced out by a newer generation.
Everyone who saw Obama sweep to victory now feels that they, too, can be a president, or a senator or at least a lieutenant governor, or Cook County board president, or congressman or elected dog catcher. Yes we can, and isn’t hope audacious?
I’ve already discussed the fine citizens who have decided that the post of President of the Board of Cook County Commissioners is the greatest job in the world. Four Black leading officials are squaring off for the chance to head up Cook County. A sitting U.S. Congressman, Danny Davis, now wants to give up Beltway politics for a chance to engage in Clark Street politics. A sitting Chicago alderman (Toni Preckwinkle) thinks she has the best ideas for the county. The current Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County feels she is a natural for the job (though she thought she was a natural for the mayor’s job also and she seems to be doing a wonderful job as clerk of courts). Of course, the incumbent president, Todd Stroger, wants to keep the job because–aside from some pesky questions about his cousin Donna Dunning and that busboy he hired, and that sales tax increase–he thinks he’s done a great job.
But just recently two people announced that they want to be lieutenant governor. It is not true that being lieutenant governor is like kissing your sister when she has a cold sore, but it is not far off. Consider that Pat Quinn was elected lieutenant governor twice with Gov. Rod Blagojevich and admitted that he went 18 months without even talking to Blagojevich. No one expected much from Quinn, and from all accounts, they got exactly what they expected.
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