The Endorse Case Scenario

Fightin' Joe Walsh, is fightin' mad. As readers of this blog are unpleasantly aware ...

A Nill of Endorsement

The big newspapers all declined to endorse Walsh. The Eighth District Congressman is so fightin' mad over the snub that he fired off a press release to let them know that they can dis-endorse him all they want, he don't care:

I'm not at all surprised by the decisions of the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald to endorse Tammy Duckworth. Ms. Duckworth has always been the preferred candidate of the elite Chicago liberal media. The day I care what the Chicago media thinks about me or this race will be the same day that I leave the political arena.
Walsh calls Tribune, Daily Herald "irrelevant"

Your LakeCountyEye has found that when in a state similar to this one, it is often helpful to double down on the meds. Just sayin!

Now if your LakeCountyEye had a dollar for every candidate who failed to pick up some expected newspaper endorsement, your LakeCountyEye would have at least another couple thousand dollars. Newspapers are all in the business to make a profit. And it's no secret that every newspaper keeps their bottom-line interests foremost in mind, when deciding who and who not to endorse. So the next time that newspaper fails to come through with that crucial endorsement, remember -- it's nothing personal, just business.

To prove your LakeCountyEye isn't just making this stuff up, here is the actual, closely held secret decision tree that most newspapers follow when doling out their political endorsements:

Is the candidate very likely to win?

Does the candidate (or their dad's/spouse's business) buy ads on your newspaper?

Do you have the cell # of the candidate?

Is the candidate the incumbent?

Is the candidate a Republican?

Is the candidate a Tea Party Loyalist?

Does the candidate clean up well in a $90 suit?

Thanks for Playing! Decry the sorry state of the commonweal and instruct your readers to move along, there is nothing else to see.

We have a winner! Gin up two or three plausible rationalizations for your decision and endorse that candidate!

A Good Looking Player

When Harry Caray was calling the Cub games he would see someone on the field he liked and would say, there goes "a good looking player." Well if Harry was with us today he'd no doubt be blogging on Illinois politics. And after Mark Kirk's Monday townhall in Arlington Heights, he'd no doubt be saying about Kirk -- there's a good looking player. Because fortune or fate or someone, maybe Harry himself, was smiling down on Kirk.

Kirk's townhall was about health care and though poorly publicized, drew a substantial crowd. Large enough to attract the broadcast media. Locally, pols have been avoiding these townhalls. The economy has made affordable health care the issue of the moment and there is always a chance a public forum dedicated to that issue could turn into a foodfight. Which no doubt is what the media was hoping for in Arlington Heights. They must have been disappointed though -- both tea-baggers and HCAN showed up but apparently neither was scrapping for a brawl.

Kirk is the beneficiary of the media's misapprehension. An overflow crowd of relatively well-behaved people show up on short notice to see what Mark Kirk has to say about health care. What will the media think? There goes a good looking player.