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National Review trashes Quinn

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Illinois

* Writer spends a couple of days in fly-over country, begins his story with a little black kid in East St. Louis who says unkind words, race baits throughout the article, half truths abound, Illinois Policy Institute quoted, DH Brown’s is referred to as a “video-gambling establishment,” Interstate 55 is described as…

the dyspeptic alimentary canal of Illinois, from the shadows underneath the gloomy turret of the Joliet penitentiary to the stagnation of Normal and Bloomington, across the vast stretches of lightly populated Corn Belt and through the almost-as-empty state capital at Springfield

But along the way he does provide one or two helpful insights. Read it here. You’ll need to pay to read the whole thing.

Oh, and it made the cover…

The tear on Lincoln’s face is a definite tip-off.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 3:50 pm

Comments

Quinn ruined Illinois? All of it? All by himself?

I think they’re giving Quinn way too much credit.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 3:56 pm
Wow, in just a few short words he managed to trash the entire State of Illinois. I don’t really need to read the whole thing to know that it’s a complete and utter hack job.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:00 pm
Breaking: in a shocking revelation, progressive Governor Pat Quinn villainized in conservative publication….

Aside from the obvious attempt to incite class and race warfare, where is the insight?

Comment by Illinoise Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:00 pm
47th is correct. I despise Quinn as a Governor thought I would drink a cold one with him, but the dude did not exactly inherit the City of Oz here.

Let’s face it. The failure of Quinn and why he must be removed is he has been unable to turn around 4 bad years of Ryan and 6 terrible years of Blago.

Comment by the Patriot Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:05 pm
I’m not sure I want to pay to read the whole thing. Can anyone who has read it tell me if there’s a point to starting off writing about a “racially aggrieved” kid, or is this just a gratuitous racial ornament to the article?

Comment by VM Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:06 pm
They must have received a pretty good ad buy from the Raunervich campaign. /s

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:06 pm
Kevin Williamson is a bigot who has repeatedly bashed transgendered people in addition to whitewashing and re-writing a history of the Civil Rights Movement, as if the man who founded National Review wasn’t himself an ardent white supremacist and virulent of opponent of civil rights. Just the preview of this article makes me want to vomit. Pay 25 cents for it? No thanks.

Comment by Precinct Captain Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:07 pm
Trash… and I don’t have to read it. I’ll save my money for the National Enquirer - they have a great UFO story.

Comment by 4 percent Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:07 pm
National Review must have a Journalist in Residence too. Maybe he shares a dorm room with IPI’s Scott Reeder and Bruce Rauner.

Comment by Tim Snopes Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:07 pm
Wow, that’s some unhinged prose. That dude has some demons. I wonder what phrases were rejected before choosing “dyspeptic alimentary canal” to describe I-55?

National Review has tarted itself up over the years to try to get some attention from the Rush and Fox lovers. But those Ivy boys really can’t pull it off. They don’t come off as edgy, just silly.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:13 pm
The sentiment I agree with. Placing ALL of the blame on Pat Quinn, I don’t agree with.

Comment by Befuddled Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:15 pm
Criticize Quinn if you must, but not Brown’s!
My favorite place to drink in Springfield.

Comment by Jake From Elwood Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:18 pm
The caricature of PQ is pretty good.

Comment by Birdseed Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:25 pm
How dare he insult the great deal at Brown’s on frozen vodka lemonades. I suggest he try to find a better price in Kansas or Utah on such a tasty beverage.

Comment by Happy Hank Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:38 pm
Wow. I love to read folks here take pen to paper, metaphorically speaking, and state some similar things about Illinois. That’s OK, we live here. But for someone else to bash the Land of Lincoln? Dem’s fightin’ words. I doubt any thoughtful person who understands how gov’t and politics works would embrace the idea that one governor, in 6 years, could destroy a state. Hyperbole for comic effect coming from an outsider.

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:39 pm
Maybe Mother Jones can run an article about how Bruce Rauner has destroyed every company he flips. And have an Andrew Carnegie caricature with the singular tear.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:46 pm
National Review trashes Quinn. I’m shocked. Just like the shock that there is gambling in the movie Casablanca.

Comment by Amalia Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:47 pm
Hemingway he ain’t.

Comment by walker Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 4:53 pm
It should have been a tattooed tear in honor of our last 2 governors

Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:01 pm
Is this guy talking about Illinois? It sounds like he is describing the scenery in “Falling skies” or “Walking Dead” or some other post apocalyptic Sci-Fi movie. What was he smoking before he wrote that? Sounds like he just took a couple of convenient facts, twisted the truth so it suited him and then made the rest up as he went. That guy needs to cut a hole in his soul and let all the poison out.

Comment by Ginhouse Tommy Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:40 pm
No fan of PQ here, as everyone knows, but this guy has some issues. And I didn’t read the whole thing. No way was that heinous tripe getting my quarter.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:44 pm
Wow, what did that cost Rauner?

Comment by Imjustabill Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:51 pm
Who else saw that cover and thought of the “Keep America Beautiful” PSA with Iron Eyes Cody from the 70s? Now we just need William Conrad reading NR prose to us in a serious voice.

Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:56 pm
I’ll bet Kevin D. Williamson wears a bowtie everyday.

Comment by Marty Funkhouser Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 5:57 pm
Give the guy some props for the eagle eyes, the closed Joliet Penitentiary is a bit more than five miles away from I-55.All I see in B/N is construction along I-55. He must have missed the giant pink elephant by Livingston. Too bad. Great ice cream stand there.

Comment by Toure's Latte Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 6:08 pm
Just Google the title- get it for free.

Comment by john doe Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 6:10 pm
Anyone who reads anything in the National Review deserves their fate.

Comment by DuPage Dave Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 6:21 pm
Just think what he’d say about Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Creep.

Comment by persecuted Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 6:39 pm
I didn’t realize Quinn was actually good enough to ruin and entire state!? I have been underestimating him pretty drastically.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jul 31, 14 @ 9:08 pm
—-Just Google the title- get it for free.====

I tried that with no luck. How about a link? Thanks in advance.

Comment by Peoria guy Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 7:57 am
I like National Review. Don’t always agree with everything written there, but I am not one to only read publications that confirm my own thoughts.

Comment by Peoria guy Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 7:59 am
You guys are like a bunch of Eskimos shocked that folks living in Palm Springs think your weather is too cold.

They don’t understand that living in Illinois means becoming comfortable with gubernatorial felons, single party rule, busted state budgets, economic drift, job loss, and aged political superstars with decade-long tenures who clearly remember the day they cut the ribbon to build Sears Tower and still think it’s 1974.

Making fun of Illinois state government is like making fun of Louisiana Swamp People. Its easy and obvious how crazy things are to those looking in, but pointing and laughing at us does hurt our feelings.

It is embarrassing. It is mean. Yet after reading scads of nasty things written about Missouri or Indiana right here, we ought to be tough enough to be laughed at.

How many of you guys voted for Blagojevich? Really. You’re offended that everyone else finds that hard to believe? It is, isn’t it? If Ryan, Blagojevich, and Quinn happened to Texas, you’d never let up on how bad Texas would be.

Let them mock.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 8:28 am
Some commenters are saying “not all PQs fault but I agree with the description.”

I’m going to say sorry to all that, we still have major problems but I think there are some very positive signs of life and our state economy is actually starting to do better than people think. Healthcare sector alone is growing very solidly. The nattering nabobs of negativism have had their day, it’s time to start recognizing that the sky is not falling.

Comment by siriusly Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 8:32 am
Quinn is inept — blame Madigan!

Comment by ash Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 8:36 am
Wow - explicitly invokes Conrad whilst channeling Clark Griswold. Dude - next time de-caf!

Comment by Anyone Remember Friday, Aug 1, 14 @ 8:52 am