Do we really like Rauner more? Or can he drop below Christie in the rankings?

Is Bruce Rauner’s favorability amongst Illinoisans really on the rise? Or are we just moving on to other people we despise a little bit more we do our state’s illustrious governor?
 

RAUNER: Can he rise to middle-of-the-pack?

The Morning Consult group came out with their latest survey – one that ranked all of the nation’s governors and senators based on how well they’re liked by their constituents.

THE BIG NEWS of their survey is that Chris Christie of New Jersey, who at various times in the past was supposed to be a presidential favorite AND someone that Donald Trump should consider for vice president or a prominent cabinet post, is now the most unpopular governor in the country.

Which probably shows how rankings such as these don’t mean a whole lot. It’s not like there’s anything about Christie’s underlying persona that has changed significantly. It’s just that we’ve now decided we want to think more negatively about him.

So what does it say about their ranking for Rauner – who supposedly is the 44^th most popular (out of 50) governor in the nation. He’s one notch ahead of Wisconsin’s nationally-known governor, Scott Walker.

Who there was a time way back when he was going out of his way to provoke labor unions in his state when HE would have been the most unpopular, and people likely would have thought Christie was “cool.”

TO GET MORE specific about Rauner, the Morning Consult group says his approval rating has gone up significantly (from 33 percent back September to 42 percent now) while his disapproval rating went from 56 percent then to 49 percent now.

 

CHRISTIE: Can he rise above Rauner?

It’s not that Rauner has done anything differently in recent months to make people like him any more than they did before. If anything, Illinois’ governor has shown himself to be terminally stubborn – digging in his heels with his desire to have a legacy as the governor who undermined organized labor’s influence within state government.

We’re no closer to a budget. Rauner seems determined to believe he can prevail because everyone will “Blame Madigan!” Perhaps he envisions a “South Park”-like song (“Blame Canada”) with Illinoisans singing as they venture to the polling places come the 2018 election cycle?

What will really determine things is whether the cycle shifts that people go back to blaming Bruce, or if that just gets old for would-be voters.

 

Are Richard  Durbin and ...

WILL PEOPLE LISTEN to messages like the one from gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar, who on Tuesday blamed Rauner for program cuts to senior citizens, college students, child health care and the mentally ill.

Will we be outraged a little more than a year-and-a-half from now? Or will we get tired of hearing such talk and move on?

He won’t be helped by the fact that this does essentially remain a Democratic-leaning state; even though Rauner’s rhetoric would have you think his 2014 election converted us to being lovers of the GOP elephant – even though many modern-day Republicans seem embarrassed by the fact that Abraham Lincoln was ever one of them.

The same Morning Consult study showed Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., with a 52 percent approval rating, and 50 percent for Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. His having been around longer (more than two decades in the Senate and close to four decades in D.C. overall) does give him a certain ignomy (34 percent disapproval).

BUT HIS APPROVAL is identical to that of Cory Booker of New Jersey (whom some are contemplating as a ’20 presidential hopeful) and Timothy Kaine of Virginia (remember him, he could have been our vice president now).

 

... Tammy Duckworth more like Ill.?

Does that make Illinois a place inclined to see Rauner continue to plummet in the future. Or can he stabilize himself during the next year into an unmemorable governor?

Will Rauner continue to move up the popularity polls to the middle of the gubernatorial pack? Or will the coming of Election Day next year be the factor that puts more heat on him, causing Rauner to drop to the Number 50 slot (being the governor who couldn’t get a budget passed ever during his four-year term is a pretty nasty legacy to have)?

I’m sure Chris Christie himself wouldn’t be bothered in the least to be deposed as the possessor of the bottom slot on the gubernatorial favorability rankings.

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Pondering Mexico’s “independence” at a time when Trump wants to use ethnicity as a political punching bag

It’s Independence Day in Mexico, and if by chance you live near a Mexican enclave in this country you probably got to see and hear a taste of the celebration last night spilling over into Friday.

TRUMP: Will his defeat bring celebration?

Heck, even Gov. Bruce Rauner felt compelled to take part Thursday night in a replication in Chicago’s Harrison Park of “el Grito,” the cry for independence that acknowledged the 1810 breaking away of Spain’s colony into a free and separate nation of Mexico.

WE HEAR A lot about the growing Latino population in this country and see evidence that it is influencing the masses as a whole.

Yet I also don’t doubt there were some individuals who saw and heard the celebration that took place in parts of this country and wound up gnashing their teeth in anger.

These are the people who have their own nativist leanings whose own xenophobia has turned into a particularly irrational hang-up with regards to anything having to do with the Spanish language – particularly as it applies to Mexico.

Which makes sense, in a sense, because it is roughly two-thirds of the Latino population in this country that is specifically of Mexican ethnic leanings. I could see where people who are inclined to be clueless would think that it is “Mexico” that is somehow taking over.

NATURALLY, THERE’S BOUND to be someone inclined to use such leanings to their own benefit. That may well be Donald Trump.

RAUNER: Even Bruce celebrated Mexican freedom

The New York real estate developer who now says he wants to be president has made a point of anti-Mexico rants in his campaign rhetoric. He began by bashing Mexican people in this country as being rapists and drug dealers and all other sorts of slurs.

Of course, many Mexican Americans think of Trump as nothing more than a pinche pendejo (look up a translation yourself) and a baboso. The impression that the level of contempt being contemplated is mutual. There will be many of the people who celebrated Mexican independence who will be prepared to see Trump go down to defeat.

It is a safe bet to say that Trump will NOT take the Latino vote on Election Day. The only real question is if he will set a record low for a Republican candidate. Because many Latinos who vote will be casting ballots against him just as they did against John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

KAINE: Language an advantage?

WE REALLY DIDN'T think that highly of Barack Obama – it was more a sense that we saw him as less objectionable than his opponents. Which really is the case with Hillary Clinton in her bid against Trump; who if Latinos had had their way would have been the Democratic nominee back in 2008.

But I know there are those political observers who are unsure of what will happen because of the sense that the nativist element of our society is excited about Trump BECAUSE OF the fact he’s willing to talk so much trash about Mexicans and is willing to give them the fantasy of a government that will be openly hostile and push for mass levels of deportation.

KIRK: Turning to Spanish to save self politically

It may well come down to the 2016 election cycle being a showdown between the xenophobes and the growing Latino population. I’m sure the nativists are viewing this as a chance to put the foreigners in their place.

While Latinos, including all us Mexicans (my own grandparents came to this country in the 1920s and wound up settling in the South Chicago neighborhood) may use this election cycle as a chance to silence those people politically, once and for all.

THOSE PEOPLE OF sense will see this. I find it humorous that Clinton chose the Spanish-speaking Timothy Kaine (he once worked with Catholic missionaries in Honduras) as her running mate, particularly whenever political pundits feel compelled to say that his language skills are meaningless.

They’re probably the ones who also are peeved with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who recently cut a Spanish-language campaign ad for himself – one in which he talks about his own disapproval of Donald Trump. It could sway the Latino vote in his re-election bid against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

While the top priority will still be the presidential campaign. If you think the celebration last night and Friday was out of line, just envision the Latino reaction to a Trump defeat.

Think of the remains of all the piñatas in Trump’s image that will be littering the streets after being smashed to smithereens in joy!

Will Trump be in tatters on the streets of Mexican enclaves everywhere following Election Day?

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