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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (26565)	3/11/2008 3:30:07 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Lose and Learn March 11, 2008; Page A20 'If we can take Denny Hastert's seat back in Congress, you know people really want change." -- Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean Mr. Dean's job is to spin election results. But it would be a mistake for Republicans to dismiss his response to the Democrats' special election victory in Illinois on Saturday as merely partisan bluster. Democrat Bill Foster won the Illinois House seat occupied for more than two decades by former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, who retired before the end of his term. The result shows that Democrats not only have political enthusiasm on their side but that Illinois Senator Barack Obama, who endorsed Mr. Foster, is a campaign asset down ballot, at least in his home state. Yes, turnout in this special election was down from what it will be in November, but it's also true that both sides spent heavily in a race that the GOP should have won. All told, Republicans still outnumber Democrats in the district, which includes exurban Chicago, and it was carried with 55% of the vote by President Bush in 2004 and 54% in 2000. GOP candidate Jim Oberweis didn't help his own cause, despite better name recognition. Before Saturday's vote, the dairy magnate had come up short in two Senate bids and a race for Governor. In addition to this losing track record, he seems to have a knack for dividing the party. Mr. Oberweis's primary contest against state Senator Chris Lauzen was so bitter that Mr. Lauzen withheld his support of the nominee. According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Lauzen's "decision not to endorse Oberweis sidelined a potent grass-roots organization that could have helped the Republican candidate." On the issues, one lesson here is that Republicans better know how to talk about health care in a way that resonates with voters. Whether the Democratic Presidential nominee turns out to be Hillary Clinton or Mr. Obama, health-care reform is certain to be a major component of the Democrats' domestic agenda. In Illinois, Mr. Oberweis had no effective market-based response to Mr. Foster's call for government-run universal heath care. We trust John McCain will be better prepared. To his credit, Mr. Oberweis did talk about lower taxes, smaller government and other Republican themes. But as in his past campaigns, the issue he hit hardest was illegal immigration. One of his infamous Senate ads featured Mr. Oberweis in a helicopter over Soldier Field complaining that the number of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. every day could fill the stadium in a week. Mr. Foster called for comprehensive reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegals and deflected his opponent's over-the-top rhetoric by reminding voters that a subcontractor at one of Mr. Oberweis's ice cream shops was caught employing illegal immigrants. Republicans such as Mr. Oberweis remain convinced that illegal immigration is a winning issue. And if the electorate were comprised mostly of Internet screechers and cable news anchors, they might be right. But the fact that Mr. McCain, the Presidential candidate most closely associated with immigration tolerance, has outlasted Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and other immigration hardliners, should be an indication that other issues are foremost in the minds of even GOP voters. Saturday's result showed once again that a hard line on illegal immigration doesn't win elections. The longer Republicans pretend that it does the more elections they will lose. online.wsj.com