* A couple of weeks ago, a few people I know were at a Republican gubernatorial forum. They decided as a joke to make a bet on what word or phrase Sen. Kirk Dillard would use the most that evening.

One bet “Jim Edgar.” Another bet on “Destination economy.” A third bet that Dillard’s most-used word would be “I.”

The third guy won. Big.

* With that in mind, check out this new video posted by WHBF TV of the “education” segment during a GOP forum in the Quad Cities.

Dillard’s remarks…

“I have a 12 year old and a 10 year old and I focus every day and live and breathe issues of education. My father was a high school teacher, and I live the common core. My wife and I were very involved in a voluntary preschool in our community called Hinsdale. And so from early childhood education, which I’ve always supported, through, and I’m on my community college board’s foundation board where we work hand in glove with local manufacturers at the College of DuPage training our workers. I still stay incredibly active with Western Illinois Univeristy, Depaul University. Education is a lifelong thing, early childhood on through the community colleges on through our great universities like the University of Illinois. I have a written, best in class education program. Best in class education goes hand in glove with an ability to train our workforce. When I was a student at Western Illinois University I worried about competing for a job with somebody from Iowa. My kids, your kids, your grandkids and today’s workers are going to have to compete with kids from India and from other places in the world. So, I urge you again, not to bore you this morning, but go on, see my vision…”

Dillard does this all. the. time. Almost his entire campaign schtick appears to be about his qualifications, his experience, his whatever.

Voters do want to hear about a candidate’s life story, but they mostly want to hear what the candidates believe about them; their future, their state, their communities, their problems, their wants and needs.

Sen. Dillard, on the other hand, frames just about everything as being about Kirk Dillard. And that just aint’ gonna work.

Not to mention that none of what he said made any freaking sense. Sheesh.

…Adding… There’s been some furious push-back in comments, so I commented myself in reply…

(I)n reading some of these comments (was at a long lunch and didn’t monitor like I usually do) I’ve come to the conclusion that either I wasn’t clear enough or some of y’all are just obtuse.

Politicians can and do effectively use the word “I.” They can use it to identify with people, to state what they’ll do, to show that they mean business.

But look at how Dillard uses it. It’s just a bunch of half anecdotes that don’t add up to anything or even mean anything taken individually.

I don’t care that he works with the community college if he doesn’t use it to illustrate how that experience would help him lead Illinois, or informs him about Illinois’ many, many problems.

It’s a useless “I.” And if you can’t see that, well, “I” can’t help you.

* By the way, this was the question he was supposed to answer…

If the return on the investment of early childhood education is well-documented, what policies will your administration pursue to ensure that Illinois children are prepared to succeed in school and equipped to enter the workplace?

Instead, he rambled about himself.