Preview of a fall election attack on Obama?

The Democratic nomination is still, I believe, Hillary Clinton's to lose. But if Barack Obama comes up on top, here's the type of attack he can expect.

This is what John McCain said yesterday:

Without in anyway denigrating or in any way being critical of Senator Obama, who I have great respect for, it's [his stance on the war] a product of his inexperience and we'll be highlighting that and inexperience, lack of knowledge of national security issues, could only lead one to the conclusion that you would have immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

Obama apologized for this remark, calling it "slip of the tounge," but this February, 2007 comment, of which there are videos of all over the internet, will come back to haunt him if he's the Democratic nominee this fall.

We now have spent 400 billion dollars and have seen over three-thousand lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.

Technorati tags: elections 2008 Republican Politics Obama Barack Obama Democrats Iraq war on terror military McCain

Romney sunset?

I don't know how Mitt Romney and his staff can spin this story in their favor.

From AP:

Republican Mitt Romney is conceding the bulk of the Northeast to rival John McCain, counting instead on his home state of Massachusetts, a split in California and wins in a series of caucus states to extend his presidential campaign beyond Super Tuesday.

Missing from Romney's latest campaign schedule were winner-take-all states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which account for 180 of the 1,023 delegates at stake. The omissions were telling with voting in 21 GOP contests on Tuesday.

The former Massachusetts governor was in Colorado Friday and planned to attend the funeral of Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley on Saturday in Utah. Romney also scheduled campaign events in Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia and West Virginia before arriving home Tuesday.

More..

If he fails to capture enough delegates to offset McCain's likely wins in other states and strong showing in California, where the Arizona senator has the backing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Romney could end his campaign in Boston on Wednesday.

I can't see Romney winning Illinois, even before his revival, McCain had strong support here among state legislators and county chairmen. Two former Illinois governors, and ex-Giuliani supporters, Jim Edgar and the increasingly irrelevant Jim Thompson, have endorsed McCain, momentum is on the Arizona's senator side nationally and in Illinois.

However, another former governor, George Ryan, was unavailable for comment.

UPDATE February 2: McCain, as well as Obama on the Democratic side, have big leads in the latest Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll of Illinois voters.

Technorati tags: elections 2008 McCain Romney Republican Mitt Illinois Politics

A wintry afternoon in Morton Grove

That's the view I captured of the Morton Grove Public Library from earlier this afternoon, the second photograph in two days from Lincoln Avenue.

By my guess we got about 10 inches of snow, Little Marathon Pundit, as did most school children in the area, got a day off from classes because of yesterday's snowstorm.

Technorati tags: Illinois photography photos Morton Grove nature weather snow library

Chicago Marathon registration begins today

Five months after a race that can only be called a fiasco, registration opens today for the 2008 Chicago Marathon. The race has a new sponsor, the Bank of America.

Last fall's race gained unwanted national attention after thousands of runners, on an unseasonably hot-and-humid day, faced empty water and gatorade tables during their 26.2 mile effort. An estimated 200 runners were taken to hospitals, mostly for heat stroke. One runner died.

A nurse working at a nearby hospital told me that her facility's emergency room exceeded capacity--fallen runners were taken to conference rooms with electric fans hastily brought in to assist their cooling off. She assured me they all ended up fine, however.

Chicago ambulances were in short supply that day, some suburban crews called in to assist got lost, incuding the crew from Niles that transported the runner who later died to the wrong hospital.

A bad day for Chicago and the Chicago Marathon.

I know Carey Pinkoswki, the longtime executive director of the race, and I believe he's the man to fix the problems from last year's event. The City, if it wants its 2016 Summer Olympics bid to succeed, obviously needs to make improvements in its 911 dispatch system.

And as I have every year since 1990, I'll be running this year's Chicago Marathon. As for myself, last year's race wasn't that bad. I slowed down, and I did't let the heat overpower me. I'm at mile 24 in the picture--I was feeling okay there, as I did at the finish line a few minutes later. The signs behind me, "It's Gonna Happen," were correct.

Sadly, I encountered my last collaped runner, of the dozen I saw, four hundred yards from the finish. Damn...he was so close.

Related posts:

A participant's view of the cancelled Chicago Marathon: UPDATED

Water station mayhem at Chicago Marathon

Chicago Marathon: Ambulance driver got lost, took dead runner to wrong hospital

Technorati tags: Chicago Marathon running marathon run Chicago illinois news ambulance emt Bank of America business

Obama and Rezko in Salon

Edward McClelland's Salon puts together an insightful study of the relationship between jailed-political insider Tony Rezko and Barack Obama.

Obama's dealings with his hinky friend have never led him afoul of the law, but they show that, despite his high-minded politics, he was no purer -- or no savvier -- than Illinois' biggest hacks in his weakness for a generous contributor. He wouldn't even say no when Rezko cooked up a deal to help the newly elected senator buy a gracious Georgian-revival home.

Rezko, after all, built part of his fortune by exploiting the black community that Obama had served in the state Senate, and by milking government programs meant to benefit black-owned businesses. But Obama took Rezko's money even after the businessman was sued by the city of Chicago for failing to heat his low-income apartments, and even after Rezko was caught using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside for a fast-food franchise at O'Hare Airport.

Now Rezko is wearing an orange jumpsuit. And Obama may spend the rest of the presidential campaign wearing the jacket for his friendship with the fixer.

McClelland tracked down James L. Merriner, the only man to interview Rezko since his 2006 indictment. He says:

The national media, they tend to overlook that Obama is a regular Cook County Democrat. Maybe he's a cut above, but he's still an Illinois politician.

The article concludes, "But he still lives in the house. And he still has the power Rezko helped him attain." The house, taken in June from the side of the "Rezko lot," is pictured above.

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Illinois 2008 Election Democrats Tony Rezko corruption Chicago