Politics truly different in 2008, analyst tells business audience

In a year when everyone in politics is talking about change, it might seem redundant for a political analyst to say the same thing.

But research does back up the belief that many things truly are different in 2008, said Paul Green, WGN Radio's political analyst and the Arthur Rubloff professor of policy studies at Roosevelt University.

Green spoke to members of the Schaumburg Business Association at their monthly breakfast meeting Tuesday.

In terms of the long-lingering presidential primaries, Green reminded his audience that at this point in the landmark 1968 campaign, President Lyndon Johnson hadn't even taken himself out of the race yet and Bobby Kennedy hadn't entered it.

In contrast, senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have debated each other 20 times already and, in Green's opinion, have run out of things to say.

The length of presidential campaigns and the amount of money they consume have changed radically over the past 40 years, Green said. He predicted that at this rate the first debate of the 2012 election could be in 2009.

"When's it going to end?" he said.

Green also had fun with the fact that "change" has been the buzzword of the year without anyone defining it or even asking what it means.

"It says that experience is secondary to change," Green said. "This is not a way to pick a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant."

In politics, though, the practical side of emphasizing change over experience is that it produces candidates without a record opponents can pick on, he said.

"Hillary Clinton was running on experience until she found out that was a losing proposition, and now she's for change, too," Green said.

His strongest criticism, however, was reserved for state officials and the "House of Horrors." Green doesn't feel that the constitutional convention some are calling for is the answer, however.

"The system isn't broken; the people who are running the system are broken," he said. "I'm afraid the same people who can't pass a budget are going to be in charge of the constitution."

The current condition of the state government is particularly irksome to those like himself, Green said, who think government should work and are fond of it when it does.

Turning his attention to local happenings, Green expressed both skepticism and sympathy for the village of Palatine's recent call for secession from Cook County -- jokingly referring to Mayor Rita Mullins as "that femme fatale Scarlett O'Mullins."

A secession is as complicated as a divorce, Green said. It requires the vote of the people in the area seceding, the vote of the county they want to leave and the vote of the county they want to join.

"Secession is not going to happen," Green said. "But we have a real dilemma with our county tax structure. It's not good what they did. But they've been facing a deficit so long they didn't know what to do."

Green said county government can be made right only one way -- by firing people.