Marathon Pundit: Chicago Tribune endorses Bill Brady for governor

Here is more news I missed while running the Chicago Marathon. Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for Illinois' governor, received a strong endorsement from the Chicago Tribune yesterday.

What a spectacular opportunity! With the inept Rod Blagojevich defrocked and awaiting a felony trial, Pat Quinn had two years to reverse the Illinois death spiral: Two years to defang corruption and clout, to reform wild spending and borrowing, to make Illinois tax policy a magnet for jobs. Two years to rescue his beloved state — and to humble the critics who for decades had dismissed him as a gadfly.

Now, nearly two squandered years later, what a disappointment. With history lying in his hands and a populace yearning for him to succeed, Gov. Quinn has proved to the 12.9 million citizens of Illinois that … he is a nice man who cannot do this job. Strength, constancy, innovation, iconoclasm, the courage to speak truth to power — by each of these leadership metrics, Quinn stands bent and pale.

Quinn's bungled tryout — he continues to rule by appeasement even as Illinois and its bright promise unravel — has become the key issue in this race. Democrat Quinn does not grow in office, nor does he compel his party and labor allies to accept solutions that crimp their own influence. For those reasons and others we'll explore, the Tribune today endorses state Sen. Bill Brady for governor.

We know that reviving this moribund state is a challenge greater than any Brady, a Bloomington homebuilder and Republican, has surmounted. By the most important measure of the next few years, though, Brady is the candidate for the job: We believe he will say No to the power-clutching elites — House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, that means you and your cronies — whose insider politics doomed this state to its own private tailspin.

For Quinn, the Brady endorsement op-ed gets worse: "What's his problem? Quinn's friends say he sees himself as the smartest person in the room, and the most righteous. That's a dangerous combo: It's plain to him, if only to him, that every public need he perceives is properly addressed by spending other people's money."

Has Quinn ever said "no" to a union demand?

Do what I'm going to do an vote for Bill Brady.

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