Chicago Daily Observer

Every day I meet Republicans who believe somehow that things are as good for them today as they were in the hey-day of the Reagan years…so they allow that if McCain is nominated, they would “hold their nose’ and they cannot abide Huckabee and Romney is a issues shifter.

They should understand that 2008 may well be 1974, the Watergate year, and they shouldn’t be so cocky but be glad that anybody of any quality decided to run for president on their party’s line. Americans regard the Democrats as more competent than the Republicans by a margin of 5 to 3, more ethical by 2 to 1. They prefer Democratic policies to Republican ones from healthcare to taxes. The economy may be tailing south. The Republicans have a Rudy Giuliani with too much personal baggage plus prostate cancer. Fred Thompson is the first actor candidate to pout people to sleep ... Read More...

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposal to make Illinois one of the first states to offer free rides on public trains and buses to senior citizens sounds good, so who, the governor himself has asked, could possibly oppose it?

Plenty of people.

Some critics question the proposal’s costs and fairness, while others say it amounts to a naked ploy to win political points by handing out freebies. Still others say it’s something they might otherwise support, but they fear the last-minute initiative could lead to the defeat of a funding bill meant to bail out mass transit, which had seemed close to becoming law.

Someone has to save the Sun-Times.

Someone who cares about Chicago and journalism and integrity. Not like the recent set of incompetents and crooks that have sent the newspaper into what increasingly looks like a death spiral.

Chicago must not only keep two newspapers, but two good newspapers. Chicago cannot pretend to be a world-class city without two—no more than it can expect to capture the Olympics with a creaking, busted CTA.

The Sun-Times and its sister newspapers are cutting $50 million, about 11 percent of its expenses, in the coming half year. The Sun-Times itself last week started to ax about 20 percent of its newsroom staff. Business editor Dan Miller, seeing the darkness approaching, resigned—an ominous portent for sure. Having worked with Miller at the old Chicago Daily News, I know that he should be running the entire paper, not leaving it. With all this, putting out ... Read More...