Illinois pols did favorite son Obama no favor

    Put this in the “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” category. In their zeal to help the favorite son, Barack Obama, when he was still considering making his bid for his party’s presidential nomination, the state’s Dems-with-clout started a drive to move the primary date up from March 18 to February 5.
    Mike Madigan, the Illinois Speaker of the House, figured moving up the date would help fundraising for Obama and kick-start his momentum into later state primaries. Knowing that Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina would all be up earlier in the presidential derby, Madigan reasoned that none of those states are “as representative of America as Illinois would be.”
    When Speaker Madigan first came up with the idea 13 months ago, it was greeted with an amen chorus. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich pledged to sign any such legislation that landed on his desk. Emil Jones, Obama’s political mentor and the Illinois senate president, welcomed the idea because "it would be nice if the rest of the nation could see him come out strong.”
    As it turns out, Obama came out strong from Day One, unexpectedly winning the Iowa caucus. By the time Illinois got to vote in its strategically placed primary, every state and its mother had moved its primary or caucus up as well.
    The result: Superduper Tuesday with 22 states holding Democratic presidential nomination elections.
    While Obama won Illinois 65-33 percent over Sen. Clinton, it played nationally as a mere home state victory. All eyes were on California. Other eyes were on New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Missouri.
    If the state’s power brokers hadn’t come up with such a good idea, Illinois could have well been the closer in the too-close-to-call race six weeks from now.
    That lesson might be put in the “leave well enough alone” category.