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Schock won it

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* Greg Hinz thinks Gov. Quinn got the best of Aaron Schock on the “Morning Joe” program earlier this week…

The two men who some think will be their respective party’s 2014 nominee for governor shared a TV platform this morning, and thanks to some self-inflicted damage, I give the verdict to incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, over potential rival Congressman Aaron Schock, R-Peoria.

Here’s why…

Mr. Schock started off well and achieved the prime goal of anyone in such matches: hogging the microphone. In fact, Mr. Quinn didn’t even get a word in until halfway through the 9-minute segment.

But after making his points how the GOP’s Mitt Romney is running even in the polls with President Barack Obama, Mr. Schock stumbled when Mr. Quinn challenged him on the inability of House Republicans to get their act together and pass a multiyear funding bill for road and transit projects.

“We passed a five-year highway bill, the Senate passed a two-year bill, and we’re now working out the differences” in a conference committee, Mr. Schock countered. “I think the House passing a five-year highway bill is a step in the right direction.”

The only problem is, the House didn’t pass a five-year transportation funding bill. And it appears highly unlikely to do so.

Speaker John Boehner did propose one, but he never called it for a vote after his caucus became divided over exactly what projects to fund and how to pay for them. Nor would Mr. Boehner call for a vote the two-year bill that passed the Senate with a wide bipartisan majority.

* Ted McClelland also thinks that Quinn won…

Schock was elected to Congress when he was 27, and doesn’t seem to want to stop there. When asked about his ambition for higher office, he uses this line: “In politics, you never know who’s going to die, retire, or — in Illinois — get indicted.” It’s hard to imagine him leaving Washington, where he’s become one of the most celebrated congressmen, for Springfield, where he won’t be able to maintain his tan or buy designer suits. If he does run for governor, though, he’s already lost his first debate with Quinn.

But McClelland also wrote this…

The two politicians were interviewed together on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday morning, speaking from the NBC Plaza in Chicago. Schock appeared tan, fit, tailored and eager. Quinn appeared whiter-shade-of-Irish pale, bloated, rumpled, and grumpy. He was either irritated enough to poke Schock in the temple or hungry enough to use him as the filling for a Breakfast Buddy.

* The video…

* Unlike Quinn, Schock effectively countered the governor’s talking points. Quinn said that President Obama “saved” the auto industry and added that Ford was doing much better here now. Schock acidly pointed out that Ford didn’t get a bailout. Quinn, on the other hand, didn’t say a word about Schock’s blatantly false statement about the transportation bill.

But Quinn did effectively counter Schock after the young Republican said he wouldn’t accept ten dollars in federal budget cuts in exchange for one dollar in revenue increases. Quinn claimed that Ronald Reagan, who’s from Illinois, wouldn’t be successful in today’s Republican Party because Reagan raised taxes and closed tax loopholes. Schock then countered that the Republicans want to close loopholes. Apparently, that doesn’t count as new revenue under Schock’s construct, though.

* Quinn has done a much better job of pushing back against Schock since that appearance. He whacked the Republican but good on Don & Roma’s show yesterday, for instance…

Click to download

* Schock is firing back as well…

Gov. Pat Quinn’s critique of House Republicans as focused only on obstructing the White House is “nonsense,” U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said Wednesday. […]

“The president knows what he’s doing when it comes to reviving the economy,” Quinn said on MSNBC. “He’s got to have some cooperation, Aaron, from the House of Representatives. All you’ve been is obstructing the president. You can’t even pass a transportation bill, which we did in our own state of Illinois.”

On Wednesday, Schock said that criticism was “nonsense.” For example, the House has at least tried to pass a transportation bill, while President Barack Obama has sat on the sidelines without his own proposal, Schock said.

“The only reason we’re discussing a highway bill right now is because the House put forward its version, the Senate put forward its version, and now we are negotiating between the two bodies to try and come up with a compromise,” Schock said. (Congress faces a June 30 deadline when current highway funding expires.)

Schock also downplayed any interest in running for Illinois governor – talk that surfaced previously but has flared after his run-in with Quinn. Schock said Wednesday he’s not “running for anything other than for Congress.”

“Well, I haven’t ruled anything out, but at this point, I’m not worried about it,” Schock said.

* Schock effectively hogged the microphone, got away with a major falsehood and looked more relaxed on TV. He does talking points with ease. Quinn looked rumpled, slouched in his chair and sounded like he was repeating an Obama press release.

I can’t see how you can give the “debate” to anyone but Schock. Quinn, however, marginally won the post-debate, but I’ll bet a whole lot more people watched the “Morning Joe” segment than saw the resulting Internet coverage of Quinn’s push-back. And instead of solely focusing afterward on Schock’s falsehood about the transportation bill (that nobody cares about in the abstract anyway), he should’ve also continued to hammer Schock on the Reagan angle. He’s right. Reagan would be a liberal socialist to today’s DC GOP crowd.

So, Schock wins this round. And Quinn really needs to up his game if he plans to continue going toe to toe with the kid.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:12 am

Comments

Unfortunately, that was Quinn’s upped game.

Comment by Bill Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:18 am
As per Rich’s oft repeated mantra I watched it with the sound off and I thought the always lovely Mika Brzalphabet won.

Comment by The Captain Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:31 am
Yeah, well, whatever. I don’t think we’ll ever see a Quinn-Schock race, so there really isn’t much point in over-analyzing who won a cable TV exchange.

Schock has a future. Quinn has a past. But Quinn is holding on to the big brass ring, so someone is going to have to take it from him. My money is that someone won’t be Aaron Schock, who’d have to get past Brady and Joe Walsh to have a chance at Quinn, assuming Quinn runs and wins the nomination.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:33 am
Yeah, I watched it with the sound off, too. To come across well on tv, you need to emanate a little extra energy; too much, and you look goofy or scary — too little, and you fail to grab the viewers’ attention.

Comment by soccermom Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:40 am
47th Ward, You forgot Dillard. He wants revenge on Brady for losing by less than 200 votes?? Kirk is in for sure. He wants it realllly bad

Comment by 10th ward Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:41 am
47thW also “forgot” No TaxBill, DandyDanRutherford…how does Mr. Dreamey get past all of them to take on PQ?
Plus he still cannot how he cannot deliver for IL Road Builders….very, very limp

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:47 am
I know 10th, and if I was a Republican I’d be 100% behind Dillard.

But didn’t he draw a two-year term? I think he’d be a good GOP governor, but he has a tough decision to make. He’s still young enough to wait until the time is right, and given that the crazies in the GOP currently dominate the party, he might be better served to wait until common sense regains its footing in the ILGOP.

My two cents anyway.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:50 am
Schock? You talking about the dude that hosted the Tony Awards show on Sunday?

Comment by vole Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:52 am
I’ll concede that Schock is better looking than Quinn and he got away with telling a whopper about the five-year highway plan.

47th Ward
Dillard did draw a two-year, but he promptly announced he’s running for governor anyway. Remember that he’s been on the state pension system for more than 20 years already.

Comment by reformer Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 11:57 am
The problem with this $10 in federal budget cuts in exchange for $1 in revenue meme is that you never hear the rest of the story, which is the $10 in cuts never come, but the tax hikes are always immediate. Reagan learned this the hard way by trusting the Democrat-controlled congress to hold up their side of the bargain with cuts. It didn’t happen and the GOP has been leery of this ploy ever since.

Speaking of lame memes, this bit about how Reagan could never get elected to the Tea Party/Grover Norquist controlled GOP is inane and absurd.

Reagan was a man of his times, as all POTUS were/are. Obviously his stab at amnesty for illegals didn’t work, yet the left is always demanding doing the same thing and expect a different result.

But still, two can play this lame game:

FDR would be a right wing wacko to todays DC Dem crowd because he thought public employees shouldn’t be unionized;

JFK would be a right wing wacko to today’s DC Dem crowd because he believed tax cuts would spur the economy and he favored a muscular foreign policy;

Bill Clinton would be a right wing wacko to todays DC Dem crowd because he was for NAFTA, DOMA, welfare reform and declared the era of Big Government is over.

Hey, this is fun!

Comment by benevolent hegemon Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:01 pm
Reformer — it’s not about who’s better looking. The Governor has had great success on tv over the years, even though he’s never been asked to grace the cover of GQ.

Comment by soccermom Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:04 pm
Winners and losers. Kind of like the Cards and Sox game last night. By the way, who won that game?

Comment by Jerome Horwitz Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:10 pm
vole, isn’t funny how Schock was called “Doogie Howser” when he first got into politics, and is now a Congressional version of Barney Stinson? His career parallels NPH’s.

Comment by AlphaBettor Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:28 pm
Quinn really needs to stay away from the cameras for a while, until he does something about his slovenly appearance and lack of skill in front of them.

Comment by Brendan Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:28 pm
“He does talking points with ease.”

Well, yeah. Professional Republican spin meisters all read from the same script. He is quite well practiced at that. It works well for running perennial campaigns but how does it work for governing?

Had Schock represented his constituency as had his predecessors, LaHood and Michel, in a moderate, bipartisan and non ideological manner, I’d be willing to give the guy a shot at governor. Instead he has represented nothing but the Boehner/McConnell and anti Obama playbook in Congress. He runs a good campaign financing shop but is that what we need for a governor in Illinois, one that can represent and manage the widely diverse interests in this complex state? I’d say not.

Comment by vole Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:36 pm
Quinn spent most of the interview twiddling his thumps while Aaron waxed on endlessly consumed by his ideological ecstasy. Quinn looked half asleep and unprepared to challenge Schock. Not surprising, given his penchant for relaying on his own counsel. Quinn will be fortunate to win a 2014 democratic primary.

Comment by Louis Howe Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:43 pm
“Quinn really needs to stay away from the cameras for a while, until he does something about his slovenly appearance and lack of skill in front of them.”

You want a celebrity/wealthy elite wannabe like the other 99% of politicians out there?

Sheesh* … didn’t Lincoln get similar criticism in his day?

I mean if Quinn wants to identify with the rest of us slobs and Goodwill shoppers, god be with him.

*TM, cap fax.

Comment by vole Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 12:55 pm
Shock doesn’t call closing loopholes a tax increase because Republican dogma and Grover Norquist specify that any revenue gained from closing loopholes must be accompanied by an equal reduction in tax rates for the rich.

Comment by maddem Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 1:02 pm
Here’s another one:

George W. Bush would be a liberal socialist to today’s DC GOP crowd with his Medicare Part D expansion and NCLB.

How odd that he never got recognition and/or praise from Dems for these obvious anti-conservative, pro-liberal policies. lol

It’s amazing how fast things change in politics now, innit?

As for Schock, I can’t imagine he’d want to be governor of such a ruined state; he’s obviously got bigger fish to fry.

Besides, Illinois is trending even more blue to the point the GOP will be mostly irrelevant. Even though the Dems control all levers in power in Illinois, it still seems like it is sometimes tough to get stuff done. What could a GOP governor hope to accomplish with the Dem establishment firmly in place in the legislature?

Illinois voters don’t want reform they want the status quo. Those not wanting the Blue Model of governance will have moved on and out so Illinois will become permanently blue—a one party state.

Comment by benevolent hegemon Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 1:06 pm
So Schock “WINS” because he spouted a total lie about minutiae of D.C. gridlock without Quinn calling him on the lie about minutiae?

This is why people (well other than us weirdos who post here) hate politics.

If Quinn was spending all his time actually following the inconsistent, non-sensical progress of bills through the chambers of Congress enough that he was ready to pounce on Schock’s lie about what the House did on the transportation bill, how would he have time to do his actual job for this state?

Now, Schock, on the other hand, as a Congressman actually doesn’t have to make any hard decisions or actually do anything for people. His job is to get his orders from his BFF Eric Cantor and go do his work-out tapes and shop for clothes so he can look good spouting his talking points on TV in appearances like this. That’s it. And somehow that makes him the better politician.

This episode and this analysis also illustrates why people hate the media.

First of all, where was the MSNBC host to call Schock on his B.S. when they are supposed to be covering the doings of D.C. every single day on their show? Are these people umpires of the political game or are they announcers? If they were actually serving the public they’d be umpires.

And what is Rich doing by giving thumbs up to a politician for BEING GOOD AT LYING?

It all boils down to turning politics into sports and whether journalists want to cover politics like sports reporters where they are just there to give the score or are they going to be guardians of truth and the public trust and speak out forcefully whenever lies occur.

I mean I get it… I went through J-School too and got my lessons on objectivity and balance and all of that too but at some point… there’s got to be a reason folks went into political/serious news reporting and not sports reporting, right?

As someone who cares about both politics and journalism I think this episode illustrates both why Congress has a 9 percent approval rating and why the mainstream media is dying as an industry.

*soapbox rant done*

Comment by hisgirlfriday Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 1:30 pm
I just shake my head when those who lean to the left go on about how Schock is a lightweight and has little to offer Illinois. Why the head shaking? The election of Blago for two terms is why. Now there is an example of someone shallower than a mud puddle and less capable of leading Illinois.

Comment by Bitterman Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 1:55 pm
=== Quinn really needs to stay away from the cameras for a while, until he does something about his slovenly appearance and lack of skill in front of them. ===

Agreed, Quinn looked like a slouch and was anything but articulate. As long as we’re being candid about Quinn’s appearance, he needs to think seriously about losing 20-25 pounds. Next to Schock (or Madigan or Cullerton or Rahm), Quinn looks like a guy who’s just let himself go. At the very least, Quinn needs to sit up straight and button his jacket when appearing on TV.

Comment by Coach Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 1:59 pm
@Coach -

More to the point, why are Team Obama and the DCCC even allowing Quinn to go on national t.v.?

Their directive should be: “You’re not available.”

At the same time, make Ray LaHood available. LaHood v. Schock would have been awesome.

Or at least someone from Illinois’ Congressional delegation. It just makes no sense to have Quinn on t.v. talking DC and national politics.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 2:57 pm
YDD - I felt the same way, Quinn’s got stuff to focus on here.

If anyone has paid attention, it’s clear I have no love for Schock. I wouldn’t say he “won it”, because by definition if you’re on cable TV you’ve already lost.

Yeah, it’s fun to pretend this is some premonition of 2014, but there’s no way in hell Schock is going to run for Governor. Momentum is his biggest weapon, so I can see why Gov rumors abound, but even a narcissist like Schock has to see that this would be incredibly risky, and risk is his kryptonite. Doing the work of fixing broken things isn’t his style. Moving up the ladder and grabbing the next brass ring? That’s Schock to a T, and the next brass ring for him is Durbin’s seat or VP (if he can cool his heels in the House for another 8 years, which I highly doubt).

Comment by Colossus Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 3:17 pm
Reagan a liberal socialist? John Kennedy a conservative hawk.

Comment by Louie Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 3:42 pm
It’s hard to say someone won that “debate.” Both said wrong things, both contradicted themselves at times and neither person offered any real solutions.

Comment by Ahoy! Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 4:01 pm
===Both said wrong things, both contradicted themselves at times and neither person offered any real solutions.===

You just described every cable “news” station to a tee.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 4:15 pm
If Quinn got even close to winning…Mr Schock should head directly ” out to pasture”. Just another example of the unbelievable sad state of leadership in Illinois. How do I sleep in this pathetic place?

Comment by Steamer Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 9:53 pm
Okay the Kid is a good spokesmodel for his party and makes PQ look frumpy. I just do not see much of substance there. He may climb higher but I do not think the folks of this state or the country are better for it.

Comment by Bemused Thursday, Jun 14, 12 @ 10:58 pm
Perhaps Quinn should be more concerned about what’s happening in SPFLD, IL. Also, while the House may or may not have passed a particular roads bill (big deal), the House has passed budget bills that the Senate won’t touch. The Senate has not passed a budget in over 3 years. Reid refuses to do it. And the Dems in both houses strongly rejected their own president’s budget these past 2 years. That’s dereliction of duty.

Comment by Southern Peggy R Friday, Jun 15, 12 @ 12:38 am