EXTRA: “You are the worst governor in America,” so Rauner says to Quinn

That was Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner trying to excoriate Gov. Pat Quinn, who seemed (to me, at least) to be holding back the urge to laugh in Rauner’s face at the ludicrosity of that statement.

It came toward the end of the Tuesday night debate sponsored by the Chicago Urban League, and was the event in which Rauner tried to make a direct appeal to African-American voters to dump the Dems and not hold it against him that he’s a Republican.

ALTHOUGH WHAT LITTLE public reaction there was during the debate at the DuSable Museum seemed to be more sympathetic toward Quinn than toward anything Rauner had to say.

By and large, the candidates seemed to use the typical rhetoric of this campaign cycle. Having followed the process of multiple campaign events and statements, there wasn’t anything that was said Tuesday that I hadn’t heard before.

So excuse me if I don’t think either candidate did an exceptional job of grabbing the mood of the electorate and gaining its support for themselves.

The talk about the minimum wage did delve into comic relief, as both tried to claim to be the one who would seek to get higher wages for the lowest-paid of our state’s citizens.

RAUNER SAYS HE’D back a minimum wage hike if there were at least three pro-business measures enacted into law. While Quinn reminded us of Rauner’s past opposition to the idea, and claimed he’s the only candidate who’s not about to put conditions on the idea of bolstering the minimum wage from its already-exceeding the level of the federal minimum wage.

Which is why countless people living in Northwest Indiana communities along the Illinois/Indiana border commute to work in Illinois – they’ll get paid better.

Then again, Rauner is a business-oriented person who’s more concerned about the management, rather than the working stiffs.

And as far as Rauner’s attempt to lambast Quinn, I’m sure he thinks video of that moment will somehow become viral – being played over and over and over again on YouTube.

BUT THERE’S FAR too many goofs in government across the country for Quinn to be notable in that way. It just made Rauner look like a blowhard (although, to be honest, Quinn has more than his share of moments during his political life when he has been just as full of himself).

So what does the debate mean? It probably did little more than bolster WBBM-TV’s ratings by attracting government geeks to watch Channel 2 rather than reruns of M*A*S*H during the 6 o’clock hour.

And it probably proves that Quinn was correct when, earlier in the day Tuesday, he said, “”You can’t presume anything until the day of election.”

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