- M. Spencer Green/AP
- Bruce Rauner got the Trib‘s endorsement.
I’ve never been whiplashed by a journalist the way I just was by Mark Jacob, the Tribune‘s deputy metro editor. I thought I remembered everything about that year of years, 1968, but in Sunday’s Trib, Jacob (and Stephan Benzkofer) offered “10 things you might not know about 1968,” and true enough, I didn’t know most of them. For example, I didn’t know Alexander Dubcek was conceived in Chicago until Jacob and Benzkofer told me so. My hat was off to them.
The endorsement, I must say, got along nicely without gubernatorial. What it could have used was a serious argument for voting for Rauner. I’m not a fan of Pat Quinn (going back to the 70s, when he was in the services of Governor Dan Walker), or of the Democratic establishment in Springfield, and I’d have no problem voting for Rauner if he gave me a single good reason why I should. Illinois needs to be put back on its feet financially, and if Rauner has presented voters with any specific ideas about how he’d do that, the Tribune didn’t mention them. Nevertheless, he deserves “the power to revive Illinois.” In what ways is that the same as the power Rauner’s familiar with, the power to buy an ailing company cheap, prop it up, and sell it for a bundle? (Just asking, but does the Tribune‘s editorial page wish the Tribune Company had put itself in Rauner’s hands?)
