Quinn puts Hynes away at WVON: Game, Set and Match
If Gov. Pat Quinn has any competence and any discipline left in his tired bones and intellect, notwithstanding what Harold Washington said to Joel Weisman twenty-two years ago about that, Pat Quinn will be the Democratic nominee for Governor this fall. You can take that to the bank, maybe even Alexi Giannoulias' Broadway Bank, and still collect interest.
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In what was apparently the final debate of the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, Illinois’ current accidental Governor, Pat Quinn, caught a break yesterday and probably will ride it home to victory on Tuesday. Neither of these candidates has a lot of charm, but Quinn showed what he had yesterday. Rich Miller cites to ABC-7's Charles Thomas, in yesterday’s Capitolfax blog post by Miller about the 4:00-5:00 pm debate at the black owned and largely black run [with black talent] radio station on the south side of Chicago, WVON, for the proposition that the host, Cliff Kelley, is a big time supporter of Governor Quinn. Kelley didn’t mind letting his bias show, as he tag teamed with Quinn—leading the pounding of State Comptroller Dan Hynes pretty good.
The below is a transcript only of one segment toward the end of the show, but it probably was enough to carry the day with a substantial, but not exclusively, African-American audience. For most of the remainder of the debate, Kelley was a more balanced host.
ABC-7's Charles Thomas gives Hynes credit for showing up to a debate that Hynes knew would be a two on one, at least for part of the time. I also give Hynes credit for showing up. But, I give him and his staff low marks for preparation. Yeah, Comptroller Hynes faced tough and biased questioning from Kelley. But, he could have come up with much better answers. Hell, my cats could have come up with better answers.
After this, Quinn should do very well with the black vote on Tuesday. With four days left, no matter what the polls say, this election is still Pat Quinn’s to lose. He still could lose it. But, if Quinn has any competence and any discipline left in his tired bones and intellect, notwithstanding what Harold Washington said to Joel Weisman twenty-two years ago about that, Pat Quinn will be the Democratic nominee for Governor this fall. You can take that to the bank, maybe even Broadway Bank, and still collect interest.
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Dan Hynes: I laid out a proposal when I started this campaign to eliminate the deficit over three years. The deficit has grown under Quinn from 9 to 13 billion dollars under one year.
Cliff Kelley: [Analogizing Hynes argument, above, to what they say about Obama, Kelley argued], “You’ve got to spend some money to get out of a recession.”
Illinois needs large deficits to grow its economy?
Pat Quinn: Yeah, they say the same thing about President Obama and I think he defended himself very well [last night]. President Obama asked me out to the White House when I was sworn in because he was happy I became the Governor. You know, we work very well together. Just today we got 1.2 billion dollars for high speed rail, some of which will be spent right here in Englewood and put a lot of people to work.
Pat Quinn: The same with Thomson Prison, the President asked me to allow his officials to inspect it to buy that prison from Illinois. It will create 3800 jobs, I’m working with President Obama on that and it will bring a billion dollars of new income to our state. I was down there this week with Rev./Senator Meeks when Ford picked Illinois as a place to create 1200 new jobs.
Quinn, the name dropper?
Dan Hynes: Anybody keeping count of how many names the Governor drops. He is breaking a record.
Pat Quinn: How about the Defender, they endorsed me today. Since 1905 the Defender has been the voice of the African-American community, not only in Chicago, but in the south during the bad days. The Pullman porters would throw the Defender off the train in order to get people the truth down in the south.
Kelley asks Hynes: you agree your TV ad is horrific?
Cliff Kelly: we have gotten so many calls and so forth…in addition to all three of our congressmen and Jackie Grimshaw and they just thought it was horrific that you would [run this ad about what Harold Washington said about Quinn]. Do you agree—well, just comment on the piece itself.
Hynes: Well, its natural for the question to come up because it’s a powerful message and the words of Harold Washington are very powerful. They speak to the fact that the Governor was fired from his job for his inability to do his job. Mayor Washington …spoke of Quinn’s inability to run the Dept. of Revenue and that he was more concerned about public relations than solving problems. And the reason that it is relevant is because that’s exactly what we’ve gotten in the last year under the Governor—an inability to deal with problems—and rather a focus on public relations.
Hynes tries to explain away his “youthful indiscretion.”
Kelley: Now, if that’s true, I think that Dan the people have a problem because your dad was certainly not a supporter of Harold Washington and you ran against Barack Obama [for the U. S. Senate Democratic Party nomination in 2004]. What I am saying is [was] the intent to try to divide the Black community or to draw votes from people who are racists [and] who didn’t want Washington in office in the first place?
Dan Hynes: No, the intent was to explain to people the governor’s inability to solve problems and his lack of competence…
Kelley tries to minimize what Washington thought about Quinn
Cliff Kelley: But that was years ago.
Dan Hynes: It is not just a one-time situation. That’s the reason he was fired by Mayor Washington at the City of Chicago Department of Revenue.
Cliff Kelley: Twenty years ago.
Dan Hynes: A job that’s very similar to the job he has now. You brought up my father and let me just speak to it. …when he ran for Mayor, I was 18 years old, and I support my father and I love my father. But, my father is not running for Governor. I’m running for Governor.
Cliff Kelley: You were in the commercial.
Dan Hynes: Pardon me.
Cliff Kelley: You were in the commercial. Your father’s commercial.
Dan Hynes: Right, like I said, I support my father.
Cliff Kelley: Right. Right. But, you were in the commercials where he was attacking Mayor Washington.
Dan Hynes: Right, I was 18 years old and I love my father and I loved him then and I support him, but the point of this commercial and the powerful nature of Mayor Washington’s words are very clear. It is about the fact that: Pat Quinn was fired from his job. Because he wasn’t able to do his job and he was more concerned about public relations and that’s exactly the problem we have now in his one-year in office.
Cliff Kelley: Well, he’s had a number of offices since then and he’s done very well at them so I’m just saying to go back—
Dan Hynes: And, people can factor that in and make a decision for themselves.
Kelley asks Quinn to respond after Kelley responded for him
Cliff Kelley: …Governor, you want to respond?
Pat Quinn: Well, I did a good job, an honest job and that’s what the people want in the governor….this is a divisive commercial, and he knows it. I was 18 years old…I worked for Bobby Kennedy—he was trying to bring people together when he ran for President…and I believe when you are 18… you make up your own mind. The fact is that Dan Hynes left the Democratic Party to go and try to unseat Harold Washington as Mayor …I worked for Harold Washington in every single election he was in…now Mr. Hynes’ father who [Dan Hynes] supported and campaigned for… called Harold Washington sleazy and I think that was just plain wrong…we’re not going to let anyone go back to those days of 1980 …when people were divided… and I always was with Harold Washington and [Dan Hynes] never ever voted for Harold Washington nor did his father who was calling Harold Washington terrible names.
Dan Hynes: …I think that, again, we’re not trying to be divisive. We have presented these words of Mayor Harold Washington, which are directly relevant to the fact that the Governor today has allowed our problems to get worse. He was fired from his job because he was not competent and he wasn’t doing a good job and that’s exactly what’s happened today.
Cliff Kelley: But, since then he has been elected to two statewide offices…
Dan Hynes: So, people can evaluate that. They can-
Cliff Kelley: They have, I just wish—
Dan Hynes: They can listen to the words of Harold Washington and then they can discount it or factor in…but that doesn’t mean that the words of Harold Washington shouldn’t be heard. And, I certainly don’t think that what my father did has anything to do with it.
Pat Quinn: I think it is important that Comptroller Hynes doesn’t put his picture on those commercials that he was running…the reason is that the Hynes family fought Harold Washington every step of the way in the 1980s when we made progress…I’d rather lose the race for Governor than divide the people of Illinois along the lines of race. That’s what my opponent is doing…
Kelley to Hynes: Have you ever done anything of note?
Cliff Kelley: …this question comes from an email from someone asking [Dan], what have you done in the past? [Pat Quinn] has already mentioned the Citizens Utility Board, which we all agree has helped a lot of people. …but the point is that [Pat was also] able to reduce the size of the legislature through referendum—there are a number of things that Pat has done, tell us, Dan, what you have done?
Dan Hynes: I have been the comptroller for 11 years. I have been the lead voice of fiscal responsibility in this state…[Many of the newspapers agree] I have the better plan to get us out of this budget mess that is growing worse under Pat Quinn… we are unable to make the investments [we need to] in education, in healthcare, in human services and these are the real consequences for a budget deficit that I warned about for many, many years…
Quinn, 11% unemployment and he is the jobs Governor?
Pat Quinn: In eleven years, he hasn’t created one job. …And, today, with the announcement of President Obama…helping me as Governor, I think its 5500 jobs that are going to be created by the high speed rail…we passed a job recovery bill to rebuild our schools…and to rebuild our water systems and healthcare and so on, that’s going to create 439,000 jobs; I’m the jobs governor…
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In what was apparently the final debate of the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, Illinois’ current accidental Governor, Pat Quinn, caught a break yesterday and probably will ride it home to victory on Tuesday. Neither of these candidates has a lot of charm, but Quinn showed what he had yesterday. Rich Miller cites to ABC-7's Charles Thomas, in yesterday’s Capitolfax blog post by Miller about the 4:00-5:00 pm debate at the black owned and largely black run [with black talent] radio station on the south side of Chicago, WVON, for the proposition that the host, Cliff Kelley, is a big time supporter of Governor Quinn. Kelley didn’t mind letting his bias show, as he tag teamed with Quinn—leading the pounding of State Comptroller Dan Hynes pretty good.
The below is a transcript only of one segment toward the end of the show, but it probably was enough to carry the day with a substantial, but not exclusively, African-American audience. For most of the remainder of the debate, Kelley was a more balanced host.
ABC-7's Charles Thomas gives Hynes credit for showing up to a debate that Hynes knew would be a two on one, at least for part of the time. I also give Hynes credit for showing up. But, I give him and his staff low marks for preparation. Yeah, Comptroller Hynes faced tough and biased questioning from Kelley. But, he could have come up with much better answers. Hell, my cats could have come up with better answers.
After this, Quinn should do very well with the black vote on Tuesday. With four days left, no matter what the polls say, this election is still Pat Quinn’s to lose. He still could lose it. But, if Quinn has any competence and any discipline left in his tired bones and intellect, notwithstanding what Harold Washington said to Joel Weisman twenty-two years ago about that, Pat Quinn will be the Democratic nominee for Governor this fall. You can take that to the bank, maybe even Broadway Bank, and still collect interest.
***************************************************
Dan Hynes: I laid out a proposal when I started this campaign to eliminate the deficit over three years. The deficit has grown under Quinn from 9 to 13 billion dollars under one year.
Cliff Kelley: [Analogizing Hynes argument, above, to what they say about Obama, Kelley argued], “You’ve got to spend some money to get out of a recession.”
Illinois needs large deficits to grow its economy?
Pat Quinn: Yeah, they say the same thing about President Obama and I think he defended himself very well [last night]. President Obama asked me out to the White House when I was sworn in because he was happy I became the Governor. You know, we work very well together. Just today we got 1.2 billion dollars for high speed rail, some of which will be spent right here in Englewood and put a lot of people to work.
Pat Quinn: The same with Thomson Prison, the President asked me to allow his officials to inspect it to buy that prison from Illinois. It will create 3800 jobs, I’m working with President Obama on that and it will bring a billion dollars of new income to our state. I was down there this week with Rev./Senator Meeks when Ford picked Illinois as a place to create 1200 new jobs.
Quinn, the name dropper?
Dan Hynes: Anybody keeping count of how many names the Governor drops. He is breaking a record.
Pat Quinn: How about the Defender, they endorsed me today. Since 1905 the Defender has been the voice of the African-American community, not only in Chicago, but in the south during the bad days. The Pullman porters would throw the Defender off the train in order to get people the truth down in the south.
Kelley asks Hynes: you agree your TV ad is horrific?
Cliff Kelly: we have gotten so many calls and so forth…in addition to all three of our congressmen and Jackie Grimshaw and they just thought it was horrific that you would [run this ad about what Harold Washington said about Quinn]. Do you agree—well, just comment on the piece itself.
Hynes: Well, its natural for the question to come up because it’s a powerful message and the words of Harold Washington are very powerful. They speak to the fact that the Governor was fired from his job for his inability to do his job. Mayor Washington …spoke of Quinn’s inability to run the Dept. of Revenue and that he was more concerned about public relations than solving problems. And the reason that it is relevant is because that’s exactly what we’ve gotten in the last year under the Governor—an inability to deal with problems—and rather a focus on public relations.
Hynes tries to explain away his “youthful indiscretion.”
Kelley: Now, if that’s true, I think that Dan the people have a problem because your dad was certainly not a supporter of Harold Washington and you ran against Barack Obama [for the U. S. Senate Democratic Party nomination in 2004]. What I am saying is [was] the intent to try to divide the Black community or to draw votes from people who are racists [and] who didn’t want Washington in office in the first place?
Dan Hynes: No, the intent was to explain to people the governor’s inability to solve problems and his lack of competence…
Kelley tries to minimize what Washington thought about Quinn
Cliff Kelley: But that was years ago.
Dan Hynes: It is not just a one-time situation. That’s the reason he was fired by Mayor Washington at the City of Chicago Department of Revenue.
Cliff Kelley: Twenty years ago.
Dan Hynes: A job that’s very similar to the job he has now. You brought up my father and let me just speak to it. …when he ran for Mayor, I was 18 years old, and I support my father and I love my father. But, my father is not running for Governor. I’m running for Governor.
Cliff Kelley: You were in the commercial.
Dan Hynes: Pardon me.
Cliff Kelley: You were in the commercial. Your father’s commercial.
Dan Hynes: Right, like I said, I support my father.
Cliff Kelley: Right. Right. But, you were in the commercials where he was attacking Mayor Washington.
Dan Hynes: Right, I was 18 years old and I love my father and I loved him then and I support him, but the point of this commercial and the powerful nature of Mayor Washington’s words are very clear. It is about the fact that: Pat Quinn was fired from his job. Because he wasn’t able to do his job and he was more concerned about public relations and that’s exactly the problem we have now in his one-year in office.
Cliff Kelley: Well, he’s had a number of offices since then and he’s done very well at them so I’m just saying to go back—
Dan Hynes: And, people can factor that in and make a decision for themselves.
Kelley asks Quinn to respond after Kelley responded for him
Cliff Kelley: …Governor, you want to respond?
Pat Quinn: Well, I did a good job, an honest job and that’s what the people want in the governor….this is a divisive commercial, and he knows it. I was 18 years old…I worked for Bobby Kennedy—he was trying to bring people together when he ran for President…and I believe when you are 18… you make up your own mind. The fact is that Dan Hynes left the Democratic Party to go and try to unseat Harold Washington as Mayor …I worked for Harold Washington in every single election he was in…now Mr. Hynes’ father who [Dan Hynes] supported and campaigned for… called Harold Washington sleazy and I think that was just plain wrong…we’re not going to let anyone go back to those days of 1980 …when people were divided… and I always was with Harold Washington and [Dan Hynes] never ever voted for Harold Washington nor did his father who was calling Harold Washington terrible names.
Dan Hynes: …I think that, again, we’re not trying to be divisive. We have presented these words of Mayor Harold Washington, which are directly relevant to the fact that the Governor today has allowed our problems to get worse. He was fired from his job because he was not competent and he wasn’t doing a good job and that’s exactly what’s happened today.
Cliff Kelley: But, since then he has been elected to two statewide offices…
Dan Hynes: So, people can evaluate that. They can-
Cliff Kelley: They have, I just wish—
Dan Hynes: They can listen to the words of Harold Washington and then they can discount it or factor in…but that doesn’t mean that the words of Harold Washington shouldn’t be heard. And, I certainly don’t think that what my father did has anything to do with it.
Pat Quinn: I think it is important that Comptroller Hynes doesn’t put his picture on those commercials that he was running…the reason is that the Hynes family fought Harold Washington every step of the way in the 1980s when we made progress…I’d rather lose the race for Governor than divide the people of Illinois along the lines of race. That’s what my opponent is doing…
Kelley to Hynes: Have you ever done anything of note?
Cliff Kelley: …this question comes from an email from someone asking [Dan], what have you done in the past? [Pat Quinn] has already mentioned the Citizens Utility Board, which we all agree has helped a lot of people. …but the point is that [Pat was also] able to reduce the size of the legislature through referendum—there are a number of things that Pat has done, tell us, Dan, what you have done?
Dan Hynes: I have been the comptroller for 11 years. I have been the lead voice of fiscal responsibility in this state…[Many of the newspapers agree] I have the better plan to get us out of this budget mess that is growing worse under Pat Quinn… we are unable to make the investments [we need to] in education, in healthcare, in human services and these are the real consequences for a budget deficit that I warned about for many, many years…
Quinn, 11% unemployment and he is the jobs Governor?
Pat Quinn: In eleven years, he hasn’t created one job. …And, today, with the announcement of President Obama…helping me as Governor, I think its 5500 jobs that are going to be created by the high speed rail…we passed a job recovery bill to rebuild our schools…and to rebuild our water systems and healthcare and so on, that’s going to create 439,000 jobs; I’m the jobs governor…
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