43 Comments - Squideshi - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:32 am: As long as he’s present for the debate and votes. - Jason - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:37 am: No big deal. - Boone Logan Square - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:38 am: He was in Chicago yesterday. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:39 am: Boone, that doesn’t answer the question. - Dan a Voter - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:43 am: No, I do not feel he is doing the job he was elected to to by the voters of Illinois when he is out trying to get elected to a new job. It does not appear he is muti-tasking very well but he sure is collecting a lot of campaign $$. - Levois - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:44 am: It’s to be expected though I see some blogs want him to exert some leadership on the Cook County tax situation. - No greenhorns - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:45 am: How else is he going to get experience running the country other than by running around the country. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:48 am: Members of Congress spend 11 months out of the year out-of-state anyway. In the words of Rev. Jackson on Saturday Night Live: “The question is moot.” - Smithers - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:54 am: Yes, expected and no big deal. Actually, I’d rather have him NOT voting in the Senate. To avoid even more damage. He does not speak for me, and I do not need any “constituent services” from this guy. Hillary and Bill are going to eviscerate him like there is no tomorrow. - There you go again - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:55 am: I’d like to see him back in Illinois exerting more leadership in Springfield. Ditto for Durbin. The Governor’s inability to lead, combined with the General Assembly’s woes, are dragging the whole Democratic Party down statewide. I’d like to see our U.S. Senators using up whatever “political capital” is necessary to save us from the mess in Springfield. Otherwise, there may not be a U.S. Senator Durbin or Obama down the road as the GOP prepares to sweep. - plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:57 am: Politics appears to be the only job where once you have it , it is acceptable to not perform it in the pursuit of a higher position. I understand that Mr. Obama has not been present at a number of debates and votes. Since the Dems have a razor thin majority in the senate, he should not be missing any votes. From that standpoint, he is not doing what he promised the citzens of Illinois. In his defense, he has to campaign in order to win. A 18 month campaign for office is mindnumbing for the voters. I cannot imagine what it has to be like for the candidates….. - NimROD - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 9:59 am: It’s hard to see any difference. He was a do-nothing back-bencher before the presidential ambition hit and he is the same now. The only real change is that he is available less of the time to accomplish nothing. In many respects he is a glimpse of what Blagojevich would be on the national stage: A big-ideas, populist candidate with grand ambitions, boundless hope and no idea how to make any of it come true or pay for it. Haven’t we had enough of this yet? - Aaron Slick from Pumpkin Creek, Il - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 10:15 am: Barack has no choice but to throw his heart & soul into campaigning and being away from Illinois if he is to have a snowball’s chance in Hades of getting the Democrat nomination instead of Hillary. Actually, to answer the question, he will later look back on his time away from Illinois and will realize that he should have stayed back in Illinois. Hillary has “a lock” on being the Democrat candidate for president. Barack will be her choice for Vice-President only if he is willing to kiss her ring finger (which he will later reluctantly do). - Boone Logan Square - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 10:59 am: My comment was made because it seems Obama’s still spending more time in-state than several other senators — the Alaska/Hawaii delegations come to mind, sure, but also Liddy Dole (whose state isn’t that far from DC). I’m surprised he’s in Chicago as often as he is considering his schedule. - Boone Logan Square - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:00 am: I should add, time spent missing votes on the floor of the Senate is more of an issue for me than time spent in the state. And Obama will certainly miss a lot of votes in the next few months. - phocion - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:04 am: He’ll be fine as long as he’s seen in Wrigley Field this weekend - and for the World Series! Go Cubs! http://www.metacafe.com/watch/829527/lou_piniella_umbrella_song_cubs_win - so-called "Austin Mayor" - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:05 am: How about “C: Too much time away from Illinois, but no big deal.” – SCAM - One_Mcmad - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:06 am: Yeah he is spending too much time away from Illinois and I don’t mean that in a literal sense. He can travel as much as needed, however, his focus and his U.S Senatorial staff’s focus should be on improving government in the State of Illinois. It is not clear what Mr. Obama has done as U.S Senator to address some of the issue that plague the state. For the most part, he’s silent. He has been focusing on becoming President when he was elected to U.S Senator. What is his U.S Senatorial staff doing on his behalf to help improve Illinois? - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:25 am: Mr. 24-Month Senator had between 1/2005 and 2/2007 to serve Illinois. Since that time, he has spent full time serving himself. There is a difference between a politician who has at least spent ONE TERM in office before thinking he should be president, and a politician running for the Oval Office before being elected to his first term or even serving it out. 24 months! Now he thinks he ranks with 35 YEAR veteran Biden or 27 YEAR veteran Dodd? Just how big is this guy’s ego? He is the least experienced presidential candidate - ranking below Kucinich and Gravel, for pete’s sake! We didn’t vote for him to give us 24 months of work. We didn’t vote for him to smootch with Oprah and impress Tyra Banks’ audience with his knowledge of favorite colors and tunes. We didn’t vote for him to see Michele dis Elizabeth Edwards or Hillary Clinton. Just ONE TERM! How about doing the freakin’ job you have? If you do a good job in your first term, maybe you can be re-elected! Honestly, we are getting ripped off with “Obama’s Quest For Prosperity”. We don’t have a governor, and we don’t have one of our senators. This blows. - anon - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:50 am: To ‘there you go again” Durbin spearheaded a letter from the Illinois Congressional delegation, to the governor and memebers of the Illinois General Assembly on September 7, 2007. In that letter the delegation urged all the General Assembly to quickly move on a capitol bill to avoid the impending loss of federal matching dollars. Durbin spearheaded this effort. - Cassandra - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:50 am: I write both my Senators regularly, mostly about my opposition to the Iraq war. Durbin’s office always answers and answers fairly quickly. Once, they even called and left a message. And I’m not an important person. Obama’s office answers about 1/10 the time and months later. From my perspective, he’s not doing his day job. Also, I believe he skipped an important but controversial vote in the Congress recently. At least one. This will be over soon as Hillary is clearly taking over frontrunner status. But one wonders… won’t being a senator feel like small potatoes when he pulls out of the Prez race. Will he bother, or just continue the lackadaisical approach to senator-hood. - anon - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 11:56 am: My personal experience has been that Obama’s constituent services is really bad, bad enough that he has lost my vote. I understand that he needs to campaign and be away from Ilinois but he needs to put people in place that can respond to the people of Illinois regarding concerns and requests. It ain’t happening now! - taxactivist - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 12:01 pm: Obama missed the vote on SCHIP. Didn’t see Blago blasting him for that, did you? - jwscott72 - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 12:01 pm: Vanilla is right about Obama’s arrogance, yet I find myself caring less and less (if that was even possible) about “Senator” Obama’s job performance. It’s terrible. He is a big government, tax and spender elected as a reliable vote for Durbin. Not that Durbin is much better, shilling for Harry Reid 24/7. In my opinion, Illinois doesn’t even have one senator, let alone two. - Sweet Polly Purebred - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 12:11 pm: My daughter worked in Obama’s Springfield office for a while. He was always travelling with a big posse, made little attempt to be in DC when votes/debates on votes were scheduled and he seemed much more concerned about fund raising and placing influential people and their kids in good paying jobs to curry their favor than he ever was about actual congressional business. He is as they say an illusionist - a smoke and mirrors expert who does little to attend to the position he was elected to or the constituents who elected him. Instead, he is out and about in Iowa, etc dissing those who do vote in the senate and the way they voted rather than being here listening to the “Little People” who elected him or in DC voting the wish of the people of his district. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 12:12 pm: let’s try to weed out the obama apologists and haters. in an attempt to be somewhat objective, i think everyone has to be honest with what’s happened since obama was elected in 04. durbin has done all of the heavy policy lifting, more or less covering barack and giving him the autonomy to travel throughout the country (even before he announced for president), make the talk show circuit, raise money for other candidates, etc. so the answer to rich’s question is that barack has not spent enough time being a u.s. senator and he has not spent enough time in illinois. sure, barack will point out to a few ‘town hall’ meetings he’s done, but there’s more to it then that. remember back when a reporter asked barack about some pretty heavy policy issues being debated in springfield? he couldn’t answer. durbin was asked the same question on city desk and was much more knowledgeable and engaged. barack has been running for president since he was elected to the senate (in his mind). he doesn’t have the greatest or strongest senate staff here in illinois and it shows. he owes durbin big time for covering for him. although i think obama should return his senate salary on days he’s not conducting any senate business in dc or at home. he’s sort of ghost payrolling right now. - the patriot - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:15 pm: He has never been the IL Senator. He went from the election for Senate to the campaign for president. I can’t put together the stats, but I suspect he has spent more time on foreign soil since taking office then he has south of I 64. What is most disturbing isn’t the time. It is the fact, he will take a position which is contrary to IL interests if it will get some votes in another State for President. - Loop Lady - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:16 pm: In a word no–you can’t fault the guy for testing the Presidential waters, but his attention is almost soley on this next career move. I’m thinking he will go back to being a US Senator after the Iowa and NH primaries–Hillary is the front runner and I expect she will be the nominee– - specialk - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:19 pm: I think a lot of people on here need to take civics class. Durbin and Obama have no place commenting on state issues. You don’t see the media asking a state rep. about the troops in Iraq. The federal government and the state government are seperate…Obama isn’t a state senator anymore…he is a United States Senator…these are seperate incase you didn’t realize! - Captain America - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:25 pm: Obviously, runnning for President of the United States compels anyone who does so to be less attentive to their duties as an elected executive or legislator. People understand this intuitively - so it really is not an issue. Obama should not be missing any major Senate votes, and I doubt that he has done so or will do so in the future. Presumably, Obama should have a competent Senate staff so that his office is able to furnish basic constitutent services expected of any elected legislator. But constituent services can not be his primary personal focus when he’s engaged in a credible effort to become the POTUS. There is absolutely no reason or rationale for Obama to get bogged down in the incredible conflicts/unprecedented dysfunction in Springfield. In order to run for President, Obama has to stay above the parochial political fray here in Illinois or elsewhere and stay focused on national issues. Obama is the only person standing between Hilary Clinton and the Democratic nomination, so I’m glad he’s out seeking the Presidential nomination. Hilary Clinton, albeit well qualified and capable, is not the strongest possible Democratic candidate in November 2008. A majority of Democrats would prefer someone other than Clinton as the Democratic nominee because of her high negatives and lack of appeal to swing voters. Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, the Iowa caucuses are a dead heat/statistically tied. Obama’s phenomenal fundraising and his respectable position in the Presidential polls suggest that Obama’s decison to seek the POTUS nomination was entirely appropriate. Should he get the Presidetial nomination, the Democratic Party would win a landslide victory in November 2008. If his quest for national office is unsuccessful,Obama can refocus on Illinois. I agree with those who have suggested in prior posts that Senator Obama might seek to become Governor in 2010, and that he would be unbeatable should he decide to do so. - Objective Dem - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:38 pm: I think Illinois may be missing out because Obama is currently focused on the race for the presidency. But I view it as an investment. If he wins or becomes VP, it will be great for Illinois. (Just think about the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago) If he loses, he will still be viewed as a potential president or cabinet member and have more clout than the typical Senator. He is currently getting the best briefings on issues possible. One other benefit, that many residents of Illinois aren’t going to like, is he will move beyond parochial Illinois issues and start to think nationally. I personally don’t want a Senator who is championing corn ethanol because it is what ADM and some corn farmers want. I want a Senator who is guiding energy and agricultural policy based on what is best for the country, which I think is best for Illinois in the long run. - Former US Senate staffer - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 2:35 pm: IMO the USA would be a better place if all federal Senators and Reps were REQUIRED to travel 75% of the time - and not just in their district/state. Office and committee staff does all of the work. Most committee hearings are for show; the content is submitted on paper anyway. The elected officials can meet once a month to hold voting sessions. The rest of the time they should be taking a detailed look at the way federal dollars are being spent where they are spent. And federal office holders, IMO, have no business trying to officiate state legislative debacles. Your state senator and representative report to you; not to people in Washington, DC. I worked in a State House too (albeit not in IL). To quote one of the Reps when the federal Senator visited a state committee meeting: I vote in his district; he doesn’t vote in mine. - plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 3:36 pm: Just checked with the W. Post Barack Obama has missed 94 votes (26.0%) during the current Congress. Seems to me he could do a better job as far as attendence is concerned - To Former US Staffer - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 3:54 pm: You are absolutely 100% right. Very well put! - annon in illinois - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 4:01 pm: dem or rep……if he’s {or they} are missing key votes and committee assignments then….yes he is. i’ve got a sneaking suspicion he is and it’s not getting reported on {yet}. durbin’s doing the c-y-a for him to be sure. it’s the big time barry and us senate should be your primary focus and assignment. there’s a lot of “what-if’s” here, but for the moment you are a us senator representing the needs and critical issues affecting about 12 million plus illinois residents. sounds kinda’ like a certain congressman{s} turned governor & certain governor “want-to-be’s”. - One_Mcmad - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 6:18 pm: specialk - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 1:19 pm: I think a lot of people on here need to take civics class. Durbin and Obama have no place commenting on state issues. You don’t see the media asking a state rep. about the troops in Iraq. The federal government and the state government are seperate…Obama isn’t a state senator anymore…he is a United States Senator…these are seperate incase you didn’t realize” I beg to differ. Senator Obama is one of the two U.S Senator for Illinois. He assists in the appointment of the U.S Attorney as he took the place of Peter Fitzgerald. He can in fact take a position on Illinois government as he is the representative of the people of the State of Illinois in Washington D.C. That in itself gives him and Senator Durbin great latitude to call the Governor and suggest that……..or call the Illinois Attorney General and suggest that…….or call the U.S Attorney, Northern District of Illinois and suggest that……… - Tyler - Wednesday, Oct 3, 07 @ 8:35 pm: Yes, it is about time that somebody got smart and noticed that Obama has NOT been doing the job that he was elected to do. And I might add that on Meet the Press 2 years ago he promised he would serve out his full 6-year Senate term. Come to think of it, what has he done besides go gallevanting around the country running for president. He is worse than Carol Mosely Braun when it comes to ignoring his constituents. I am proud to say that I didn’t vote for him and never will. - bored now - Thursday, Oct 4, 07 @ 7:10 am: does anyone live south of i-64??? - Kane County - Thursday, Oct 4, 07 @ 5:59 pm: Obama has no presence in my county what so ever. I live in Kane County and have not heard or seen anything from the junior senator. We have needs in Kane just as much as the folks in Chicago. His staff hasn’t even been out here. Come on Obama. - North of I-80 - Thursday, Oct 4, 07 @ 10:35 pm: Governor who doesn’t govern or show up for work; state legislature that can’t get its’ work done on time and incurs overtime/per diem to get a budget that we’re still putzing with in Oct; our Senator missed 94 votes; told us he would NOT run for pres but now is running for pres and refuses to wear a flag pin….. And Emil Jones….. sheees! Is there something in our water? Is there a conspiracy to make IL look worse than NJ ? Is there ANYONE in politics in IL that we can look up to? Do we have anyone who can do more than pretend to be a “leader” ? - Coonsey - Monday, Oct 8, 07 @ 1:04 pm: Unfortunately Obama is from Chicago area and THEY know him pretty well, so I doubt we’ll see him anytime soon - at least not till it’s our turn to vote. Question Back at ya: After reading a column about Barack Obama coming out today with his new energy plan, the thought occurred to me that perhaps Hillary’s got herself a “Karl Rove” working for her too. Perhaps knowing the Sandy Berger story (Hillary taking advise from him) wouldn’t have too much leg to stand on, but just enough to ‘distract’ the media, Hillary’s camp decided to leak the story themselves. Doesn’t that sound like a Rove style of campaigning – getting the media’s attention away from Obama’s energy speech; Stealing his limelight. I wish now that I had access to all the news surrounding Obama’s other policy announcements. Were there other ‘stories’ that suddenly appeared out of the blue? Coonsey’s View http://www.freewebs.com/coonsey/ - wallace - Wednesday, Oct 10, 07 @ 8:10 am: Obama is a full time campaigner and always has been. Once elected to the Illinois Senate he immediately ran for Congress and lost and then immediately ran for US Senate and won and then immediately ran for the presidency. Maybe when he loses this race he will settle down and give some leadership to the corruption in Illinois politics and government that he so studiously avoids. He will travel to Kenya to lecture them on their corruption but is completely silent on Chicago, Cook County and Illinois corruption. Go rock star go!! - wallace - Thursday, Oct 18, 07 @ 4:32 pm: Do either of the Obamas show up to earn their salaries. He is always too busy in his quest for higher and higher offices, but what about her? The University of Chicago Hospitals, by their own report, have 19 Vice Presidents each of whom earns in excess of $300,000–this includes Michelle Is she on leave of absence or is she too drawing a full salary for little work. No wonder our health care system is unaffordable when one hospital can waste that much money on overhead staff. I hope that Obama has included the reduction of his wife’s community relations salary in his health care plan. These folks sure take a lot out of the system for what they give back. The audacity of being an Obama!! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.