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* Background is here. JB Pritzker’s response to the governor’s speech…
“Bruce Rauner’s problem isn’t that he had too much courage, it’s that he spent four years refusing to compromise, hellbent on forcing his radical agenda on our state no matter the collateral damage,” said JB Pritzker. “Forcing bipartisan legislators to override your budget veto after two years of pain and destruction is not courageous. Holding our children and their schools hostage to an extremist special interest agenda is not courageous. Waging war on unions and attacking working people is not courageous. This failed governor exhibits the height of cowardice when he spreads lies and says ‘I’m not in charge.’ And while Bruce Rauner finally admitted his failures today, it’s too little too late after he’s forced four years of destruction and devastation on Illinois’ working families. I’m running for governor to clean up Bruce Rauner’s mess and I’ll be the leader we need to get this state back on track.”
* The Question: With 1 being the best and 5 being the worst, how would you rate Gov. Rauner’s campaign speech today? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 2:50 pm
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I split and voted a 3. Great speech given his position, but I didn’t believe a word of the mea culpa, and neither did he.
Comment by Jibba Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 2:55 pm
He honestly shows no enthusiasm or any emotions whatsoever. If home is “worth fighting for”, then show it.
Comment by Kim Richalds Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 2:56 pm
I think about half of the speech was a serious attempt to reset the campaign and better center his message towards what he can do for people across Illinois. The first half was something like a message of what he’s FOR versus what he is AGAINST.
However, the second half of the speech was more of the same from his campaign. Attacking Madigan and Pritzker over and over. If he had gone with a full speech about what he’s going to do for Illinois voters in his second term, I think it would have been more effective. Just my 2 Cents.
Comment by RedDevils Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 2:58 pm
Phony. Rauner knew what he was doin’ when he held the state hostage and caused unprecedented damage. He makes vulture capitalists blush, with the fiscal and economic distress he manufactured in order to bust apart opponents.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:01 pm
If Rauner wants people to believe a speech saying he’s changed, he should start by not crossing a picket line to deliver it.
Comment by Reality Check Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:01 pm
More evidence that Illinois is a rudderless ship. His time would have been better spent sitting in his bath robe watching Fox News.
Comment by Capitalist Avenger Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:05 pm
Rauner has proven time and again that his words are meaningless. Watch what he does.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:10 pm
Too little, and likely too late.
Comment by Red Ranger Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:12 pm
Reposting my comment from an earlier thread, to explain my 5 rating.
“Courage” to use the lives and livelihoods of innocent people — children and adults, people who were sick, or needed help, or who struggle to escape homelessness, addiction, violence, or who simply want to live their final years with as much dignity and independence as they can — for your own ideological agenda. I would laugh my a$$ off if it were not so disgusting.”
I rated this as the worst, because of the self-serving sanctimony made me enraged. He does not get it. He never will. He will never own his deliberately chosen “wedge” strategy.
Comment by pawn Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:14 pm
I don’t need the BGA to rate this one for me, I already know it’s Pants On Fire.
Comment by Concerned Dem Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:17 pm
Gave it a 4. Sounds nice but don’t know who the target audience is or why they would believe it.
Comment by Dance Band on the Titanic Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:23 pm
Gave it a 5. The insincerity, boldfaced lies and recycled rhetoric combined for a terrible score.
Comment by Notorious RBG Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:29 pm
Gave it a 3. I actually feel it’s probably a 4, but I’m gonna give him a point because of my obvious bias.
He needs to do something to change things up. But I don’t see how this breaks through.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:30 pm
I gave his speech a 2. With all that talk about “courage” I was hoping Bruce would breakout the Cowardly Lion song “if I was the King of the forest, not Prince, not Duke, not Earl….”
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:31 pm
It’s hard to view his speech by itself. After 4 years of repeated lies and deceit, he has so little credibility that everything he says is virtually meaningless.
Comment by slow down Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:32 pm
I rated it a 2. Though I don’t find his words credible, they were things he needed to say to counter the “what will be different in your second term” argument. Parts of his attack on Pritzker were very strong as well.
Comment by Earnest Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:33 pm
I gave it a 4 based solely on the words on the page (I didn’t actually see it and would probably have rated it worse if I heard G droppin’). But the words on the page just aren’t credible. The faux humility is nice but I don’t actually believe HE believes it. He’s just mouthing the words he needs to because that’s what his research showed. Rauner is a disaster.
And frankly, even his attacks fell flat. If he had some new line of attack that would make a dent in JB, now was the time to launch them. But instead it was just recycled blah blah blah.
Come to think of it, maybe I should have given the speech a 5.
Comment by Anon0091 Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:36 pm
Voted 5
Came off sounding whiny and begging for votes.
At no point in the speech did he give a real reason to elect him again. Except to say I didn’t get it done but if you send me back I’ll keep trying.
Comment by DuPage Bard Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:42 pm
All I can hear when Governor Rauner speaks is, “Blah, blah, blah, Madigan, blah, blah, blah.” Lather, rinse, and repeat. It doesn’t matter what he says now. I cannot force myself to pay attention unless I count how many times he drops a G.
Comment by Downstate Dem Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:44 pm
Just returned from the Hilton where I saw the speech live. Gave it a No. 1 rating. A speech he should have given and stuck to after the primary.
The video on Facebook does not give justice to the Governor’s emotions, which were genuine and real.
When I entered the hotel around 1:30 there were a handful of pickets, all sitting by the side of the building. The hotel did put up barricades to allow access to the front door for everyone else. When I left at 2:45, a handful were up and marching. One had a bullhorn that emitted a loud, piercing sound similar to a firetruck or ambulance.
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:44 pm
Great speech. But there’s also some other well written fiction at the library, the local bookstore, and Amazon.
Comment by Ga. Dawg Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:47 pm
It’s a 3
Rauner ad urging he’s a failure doesn’t make him likeable.
Rauner is 26 points under water.
This speech won’t change that… especially after admitting Rauner admits he’s a failure.
Those hurt by Rauner won’t forget with this speech.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:50 pm
One other thought. Going the mea culpa route is a very high risk strategy because you’re admitting that at some level you failed. If you hadn’t failed, you wouldn’t admit mistakes. That kind of strategy only works when people believe you. And while I don’t have polling on this, I suspect his credibility is completely in the crapper so voters aren’t going to believe him. Then he’s just left himself with a big fat admission of failure. I think that’s where we are and it’s another reason I think this speech is not going to help.
Comment by Anon0091 Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:53 pm
I gave the speech a 5. It was very well-written, but not plausible, given the Governor’s track record. The words seem to have been written by someone who is thoughtful, compassionate and willing to correct errors. Those qualities seem to be contrary to what the Governor has exhibited publicly since he started running for office the first time.
Comment by Valerie F. Leonard Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 3:55 pm
I read it the first time, now am listening to it.
As others have noted, the focus groups must have been brutal to get him to read this speech (guarantee he didn’t write it).
I gave it a three because he stuck to the script, wore a suit/tie and delivered it without incident or laughter to one of the most diverse crowds of white people I’ve ever seen.
Maybe Diana wrote it for him. Sounds more like her, or at least, it sounds like she wrote it for the Governor she wishes he was.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:01 pm
5
Pretty much fully trumpian - talking about your biggest failures in terms that puff yourself up - courage, lessons learned and that crap. Fully agree that he knew what he was doing and was doing so out of an outsized sense of self. Also fully agree that his internals must be brutal to get him to read that because there’s zero chance he believes any of it…except the Madigan/Pritzker bashing
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:15 pm
Watching the video is making me a little queasy, but his delivery is terrible. He’s blowing through applause lines and is reading too slowly, missing the natural cadence that a speech like this needs.
Louis said he was emotional. I’d say he was unprepared, almost like he was reading it for the first time. Even with a teleprompter, that was a horrible performance. Stilted, awkward and unnatural.
Also, term limits for all state elected officials? Is that new?
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:16 pm
After watching the video, I’m dropping my rating to a 4. The alarming lack of self-awareness was a factor, but mostly the very poor delivery of what should have been the easiest speech of his life.
He took a ten minute speech and got twenty-five minutes out of it. Cotton candy, platitudes and attacks on his opponent that could just as easily been seen as talking about himself.
Also, not enough “Madigans.” That is the central issue of his campaign and by my count, he only said Madigan twice in about 10,000 words.
4- maybe.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:28 pm
Wow, from Illinois Working Together tweeter…
===RAUNER: “I know the budget impasse was painful. It kept me up at night worrying about the disruption that many families experienced.”
REALITY: “my wife tells me she hasn’t seen me this happy in 20 years.” (6/25/17, weeks before impasse ended)===
Exactly right.
Restaurant Quality.
The speech, for me, is a 3… but… Rauner is a phony either way.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:32 pm
Obviously not scientific but if we total the 1 and 2 votes right now it adds up to 26% which I believe is right about where the governors approval rate is.
It’s a 4 for me. I suppose somewhere in there is an admission that he was wrong. But it comes less than 60 days before the election when we needed it over two years ago. Like everything I’ve come to hear from Rauner it lacks credibility. But I’m sure that a room packed with ardent supporters like Louis will find it genuine and real.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 4:46 pm
As phony and fraudulent as everything he has said for the last four years except when he confessed that he is not in charge.
Comment by It's the Economy Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:01 pm
Voted 4. Would have gone 5, but the current President has shown that you can do so much worse.
Here’s the problem for Rauner: The text is loaded with plenty of hypocrisy that an opponent can pluck out and plop in a 30-second ad. This was a gift to JB and McCann.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:17 pm
I gave it a 3. I am just basing that on the written text of the speech; I didn’t hear him give it.
I might have given it a 1 if the speech had been delivered two years ago and if he seemed to have truly “grown” in the first year or so of his term. The fact that he has never admitted to mistakes before now, less than 2 months before the election and with his approval ratings in the toilet, makes me highly doubt his sincerity.
Comment by ??? Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:20 pm
Gave it a 5 as it is pretty rich for the self proclaimed outsider buying the IL GOP and hanging a $20 million hammer over their heads creating the Raunerite party. A desperate attempt to make us think we should give him another chance, but his believability and credibility are shot.
Comment by XDNR Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:42 pm
4, mistakes were made by my courage, I’m smarter with on the job training
Comment by Rabid Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:43 pm
I gave the speech a 3. Like Jibba’s first post, the first half was good, but I don’t believe a word of it.
For every charge he makes against Pritzker, you can make a similar rich guy charge against him. Toilets? Peyton Prep. Off shore accounts? Multiple home owners exemption.
Comment by G'Kar Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 5:48 pm
The guv gave a speech today? Darn, missed it. No, seriously, how many people will take whatever the guv says as true and genuine, rather than as one more sham performance?
Comment by Flapdoodle Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 6:05 pm
I’m not buying the “pity me party”, from Rauner or his wife. It’s a five. It took him four years to learn how to govern, now he needs another four to do it right? He’s still not in charge and it’s embarrassing to watch him admit this.
Comment by Wensicia Thursday, Sep 13, 18 @ 6:44 pm