Illinois’s Daddy Problem

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Illinois voters go to the polls Tuesday to vote in a whole mess of important primaries. Barack Obama’s Senate seat on the line! Republican moderates vs. Tea Partyists! And once again, we are in the world of the angry voter.

Really angry. Compared with Illinois, Massachusetts is Athens in the age of Pericles.

Every single person running in the Illinois primaries seems to be an outsider. The state comptroller is an outsider. The former Republican party chairman is an outsider. If Rod Blagojevich were allowed to run for things anymore, he’d be in this as an outsider. As things stand, however, the former governor is a contender only in the upcoming season of “Celebrity Apprentice.”

For those of us who don’t live in Illinois and therefore don’t have to worry about that $80 billion in unfinanced pension liabilities, the big story is Obama’s Senate seat. On the Democratic side, the front-runner for the nomination is Alexi Giannoulias. Definitely an outsider. The man is only 33 — how could he have had enough time to get inside?

(More here.)