Mediaite: Chicago Tribune Won’t Endorse GOP Senator Mark Kirk Because He Suffered a Stroke

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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11 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    Can you blame them?

    When I go to vote for a candidate, the first thing I ask myself is “how likely is this person to die?”

    If the answer is “pretty likely!”, then I vote for someone else because I have no desire to have an unelected person ruling over me.

    No More Gerald Fords.Report

  2. PD Shaw says:

    Part of the issue w/ Kirk I believe, as someone who will have to decide whether or not to vote for him, is that he did have a stroke during his single term and did not cast any votes for awhile or have much public exposure. I know how he wants to position himself: socially-moderate, fiscally conservative suburban Republican with an interest in foreign policy (that most voters don’t care about). Don’t want to fault the guy for something out of his control, but six years later I don’t know much more about him than I did last election, except he is an incumbent now.Report

  3. If we read the Tribune article we see a somewhat different picture from the Mediaite article alone. The Tribune doesn’t rest its endorsement solely on Mr. Kirk’s having had a stroke. It claims to have evidence of him being less effective at his job since then AND it claims his opponent is meets enough of the Tribune’s preferences to make her a good choice (in the Tribune’s eyes).

    In my opinion, the Tribune’s argument, as the paper presents it, isn’t convincing, although I didn’t watch the video of Mr. Kirk meeting with the editorial staff. I wish the tribune had devoted a little more space to explaining specific examples (in addition to the video) of where Mr. Kirk’s abilities fell short.

    That said–and while I disagree with the Tribune and will likely vote for a candidate who is running in Sangamon and is remarkably similar to Mr. Kirk’s opponent–the Tribune isn’t acting quite as badly as the Mediaite article suggests.Report

  4. The Tribune was worried that Kirk might be impaired because he spoke so choppily, hesitating as if he’d lost the power of speech, and then rushing his words to catch up.

    Then they realized they were watching Star Trek reruns.Report