What Are They Thinking?

By Scott Smith in News on Sep 21, 2006 6:33PM

Many years ago, Chicagoist's little brother had a bit of a situation with a bully. Said bully was angry with the little brother because the little brother was cute and charismatic and seemed to have garnered the attentions of the object of the bully's eye. The bully kept insisting that there would be a bit of a rumble on the tetherball courts, and the little brother said "Bring it on." But as the weeks passed, fewer and fewer taunts were made and the fight never happened.

Seems like it's kind of that way with Blago and Topinka these days.

With just seven weeks to go until the Nov. 7 elections, the governor and the Republican challenger have yet to square off in a debate, despite having both said they'd like to have a dozen before the election.

According to the Trib, part of the problem appears to be the increasing, but still marginal, popularity of Green Party candidate Rich Whitney. After receiving the support of six percent of voters in a poll by the Tribune in early September, Whitney was invited to participate in a debate in downstate Marion, Ill., slated for the 26th.

However, the governor has said that he only wants to participate in one-on-one debates with Topinka, so in the ultimate move of ridiculous concession, Marion debate organizers agreed to allow Whitney to be questioned separately by a debate panel, and air his responses alongside the Blagojevich-Topinka debate. Despite the accommodations, Blagojevich's campaign is still trying to change the debate date to Oct. 5.

In a Sept. 30 Tribune article, Charles Wheeler, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said that he wouldn't be surprised if not a single debate was held. According to Wheeler, a long history exists of strong candidates exercising a "Rose Garden strategy," in which candidates attempt to avoid situations where errors could occur, instead allowing commercials and media coverage to increase their popularity.

Although both the Blagojevich and Topinka camps claim they are still trying to mutually organize a debate, with a recent Rockford debate cancelled and the downstate debate looking increasingly unlikely, odds are we'll likely just have to keep wondering are increasingly looking like we'll just have to keep wondering, "what's she thinking?"

Image via Cattle_Class

Thanks, Olivia!