Fieldmarshaldj keeps comparing Obie to Romney, and although I know both took heat from flip-flopping from career pro-aborts to 100% pro-life overnite, I didn't see any other simularities. However, Kuksool's post has now cemented that premise for me and I agree with it. You will also note Hastert endorsed both Romney and Obie in the primary.
I think you might have to combine a little bit of Harold Stassen or William Jennings Bryan (constant election losers who became increasingly obsessed with politics and felt that the party "owed them" the nomination for any office available) into Romney's persona to make it fit Oberweis though. After four or five straight loses in a row, I really don't see why the cult of Oberweis kept presenting their guy as the lone savior of Illinois Republicans. You'd think he'd sit out at least ONE election cycle between 2002 and 2008 and let another person take a stab at it, especially when far more qualified people made it clear they were going to seek the job.
The sad thing is, the Oberweis supporters were warned over and over again that nominating him would creating an opening for the Dems and they refused to accept that reality and always belived it was an evil RINO conspircy to bring Oberweis down. Here's a professional political anaylists take on the candidate's strengths that I posted over a month ago, warning of an Oberweis nomination:
14th District (Fox River Valley, Elgin to Aurora, including DuPage Kane, Kendall, DeKalb and Henry counties): Incumbent Republican Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, is retiring after 21 years. Hastert won by 38,596 votes (59.8 percent of the vote) in 2006, down from a 104,028-vote margin (68.6 percent) in 2004. The 2008 Republican frontrunner is Jim Oberweis, who lost statewide Republican primaries in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Oberweis is one swell guy. He is also exactly the kind of Republican who could lose this seat. He is opposed in the primary by 15-year state Senator Chris Lauzen, a conservative who has been critical of Hastert and of Washington Republicans' lavish funding of "pork" projects.... The outlook: Dairy magnate Oberweis will spend $2 million and fixate on issues such as immigration, abortion and gay rights. Lauzen, also a social conservative, will stress fiscal issues. The Democratic field includes businessman Bill Foster, who will self-fund $1 million, attorney Jotham Stein and 2006 loser John Laesch. If Lauzen win the Republican nomination, he [goes] to Washington; if it's Oberweis, a Democrat can pull an upset. For Republicans, Oberweis means "reject."
--www.russstewart.com/11-21-07.htm
Naturally, once I posted that excert, the Oberweis fans dismissed it as a baseless liberal smear against their guy.
Personally I think the worst of it is an election nobody on FR noticed outside of Illinois, Obie's campaign for the GOP nomination for Governor in 2006. The Oberweis wing here constantly demand everyone "get behind" Oberweis as the lone conservative who could "beat Blago" (the other conservative, who would have been a fresh face and a new beginning for Illinois Republicans -- State Senator Bill Brady -- wasn't a zillionaire like Oberweis) Anyone who dared stray from the herd mentality and not support Oberweis was accused of being a closet Topinka supporter and part of an evil conspiracy to split the conservative vote and elect RINOs. As this election has now proven, Bill Brady had no business "stepping aside" for Oberweis, because Bill Brady was the conservative who COULD beat Blago and Oberweis was the conservative who couldn't. Jim Oberweis should have "stepped aside" and endorsed Brady if he really cared about the good of Illinois conservatism.
Good points, though I’ll throw one other thing in there. I don’t think it would’ve mattered whom we nominated for IL Governor in 2006, since any Republican would’ve lost under the circumstances. Numerous troubled or controversial Democrat incumbents or ones with subpar approval ratings were swept to 2nd terms (Blago, Napolitano in AZ, Baldacci in ME, Granholm in MI, Kulongoski in OR, Rendell in PA, Bredesen in TN, Doyle in WI).
I was initially supporting State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger for Governor, but when he bizarrely decided to become the running mate of some rich liberal candidate named Gidwitz, I figured the cycle was going to end up being a sideshow... and it was.
Going back to the Oberweis race, I hope the clarion call goes out that he needs to recuse himself from making anymore runs for office again and immediately needs to drop out for November. This guy is absolutely toxic and a perennial loser.
Billy,
I think the Obie fan club owes Brady supporters an apology. Last night proved Oberweis is an idiot.
I agree that Oberweis likes to bully supporters of other republican candidates, to persuade them to join him. During the Nov. 2005 meeting of the Republican Assembly of Lake Co., Oberweis was the guest speaker, so that he could talk about his governor campaign. He said, “State Senator Brady is taking votes from me, helping Judy Topinka, so he should drop out and endorse me.” I thought that Brady could easily say that Oberweis was taking votes from Brady, but I never heard Brady say that, since he was more considerate. His campaign was less negative, stressing his conservative views and his experience in the state legislature, since Oberweis had lost all of his elections.