Poll: Illinois Voters Want Blago To Quit, But Don't Think He Will
Talk about Chicago cynicism.
A new Rasmussen poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Illinois voters, 84% of them, want Rod Blagojevich to resign as governor. And on top of that, 79% of voters want him to go to jail.
But here's the kicker: A solid majority of voters, 53%, also expect that he won't resign, against 40% who think he will.
Voters might want Blago out of the statehouse and behind bars, but they expect him to hang on to his current station for as long as he can manage.
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Why didn't they ask about impeachment? I'd love to know if the 54% who think he won't resign mean that as "so we have to fire him."
December 11, 2008 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The impeachment bandwagon is just getting started. Faced with a choice of getting impeached or resigning, he'll resign. It's just a matter of when.
December 11, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I really am hoping for: soonest.
December 11, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
So given that his approval rating is/was somewhere between four and 13%, how is it that only 79% want him to resign? I never understand poll numbers like these. . .
December 11, 2008 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Some want him to hang around so they can watch him twist in the wind maybe...
December 11, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Probably the same people who slow down at accident scenes. Although if anybody deserves to twist in the wind, it would seem to be this guy!
December 11, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like all "accidents", what Blago did was no 'accident". Most incidents classified as "accidents" are people doing something stupid. In this case, Blago deserves be in this "accident".
December 11, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I watched some Fox news last night just to see how they are spinning this and they are trying very hard to connect Obama to Blago via JJ and Rezko. The right wing machine was resuscitated with this Blago incident.
December 11, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
As far as resuscitated goes, I think that's overstating it. They think they are alive again because of this, but hell, what did we expect? Did anyone think the Repugs would say: O, we know Obama didn't do anything and we're behind you on this?
Look again at Obama's approval rating, especially the number of Repugs.
December 11, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
He can't resign -- at least not until he's finished shredding all those incriminating documents.
December 11, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Spiro Agnew model
December 11, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Illinois' AG is ready to go to the state supreme court and ask for a declaration that Blago is "unfit" to continue serving as Gov. The only problem I see here is that she first wants to wait and see if the state legislature will move on impeachment proceedings -- but that could take too long.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081211/ap_on_re_us/illinois_governor
December 11, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like a real Blag-jam.
December 11, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
If he immediately resigns he has a lot less chance of beating the rap, for all practical purposes he'd be admitting guilt. And I'm not so sure Fitzy has an ironclad case. He wouldn't have been asking for people to step forward and provide more evidence at his dramatic press conference otherwise. He jumped the gun by arresting him before the grand jury indicted him in the middle of this "ongoing crime spree". That's pretty unusual.
Blago's lawyer makes a pretty good case that all this was just talk, no money changed hands, nobody got a job, nobody got a sweatheart deal. At least not on these particular charges. And it's interesting that none of these allegations have anything to do with the Rezko case which we've heard about for years. That says to me Fitzy couldn't squeeze enough out of Rezko or anyone else to convict Rod and went to plan B and bugged him.
As sitting governor Blago still has a little leverage to negotiate. Almost everybody wants him out yesterday, me included. Nobody in IL or the Democratic party wants to drag this out with a messy impeachment, having the IL Supreme Court rule him unfit, let alone wait out a federal trial. But how does he negotiate with state leaders and give them what they want and the federal prosecutor who has what he wants?
They say a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Fitzy is obviously good. But Blagojevich is nothing if not stubborn.
He hasn't even been indicted yet. If Fitzy didn't dot his Is and cross his Ts on the wiretap warrants and that evidence gets thrown out he's got nothing. I'm not sure he does anyway if all he has is evidence of intent to commit crimes.
December 11, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink