To be frank…Pat Quinn has little chance for a full term

Pat Quinn is an interesting politician in Illinois. He’s interesting because he’d like to go for a full term as Governor but it’s really hard to say whether or not he’d have a chance. Even though I left the Democrats and am a current Green Party member, I like Quinn. In fact, I respect him. He means well and he inherited a bad situation. As a person, he’s a pretty good guy. However, he’s just not that good at being a politician.      Consistency is not one of his strong suits. One of his first actions was to choose whether or not to take Blagojevich to court. Unfortunately for him, he happened to change his mind a lot during that first week and this hurt his credibility. His unwillingness to stick to his guns can also be called into question after the University of Illinois clout controversy where, he backed down for fear of a lawsuit. He demanded the resignation of the entire board of trustees at U of I, and yet there are still two of the implicated trustees on the board. Yeah, the state might have gotten sued if he stayed on his course, yet he might get sued for backing down too since he was trying to fix a problem with the system. Quinn might even get sued by the trustees that were ousted simply because he allowed two to remain in their positions after demanding the resignation of the whole board.     These are just two examples of Quinn buckling due to pressure. The one example that was good is the ethics bill he once supported but ended up vetoing. Why is it good that it was vetoed? Where there’s a law, there’s a loophole (but that’s a topic for another article).      As a leader, you have to make decisions that people might not like. But you also need to cater to some people who would disagree simply because you aren’t of their party. Yes, leaders can and will occasionally back down on some things. Though a good leader will stand up for their beliefs most of the time.      The only thing Quinn really stood up for was the proposal to raise taxes. Does anyone else notice the problem with raising taxes during an economic downturn? If you need a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, you only raise taxes as a last resort. You either make cuts or you approve a temporary budget so that the state can operate while you’re working on the budget for the rest of the fiscal year. Even a three month temporary budget would have been fine since a lot can change in that short of a time, things could start getting better or worse. You start off talking about tax hikes and you’ll scare people, and it will hurt business. How? People think taxes are going up and they’ll be choosing their purchases more carefully, which people were already doing.      Pat Quinn has been hurting himself with the decisions he’s made. If the Democrats get someone good to run against him in the primaries, Quinn’s 2010 bid for governor is sunk. If they don’t, the only way Quinn could get a full term is if two things happen: a miracle or he has a change of heart. If not, the Republicans or, dare I dream, the Greens may surprise us.