Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn Gets Primetime Slot at DNC–and Deserves It

It was both fitting and proper that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who leads the state with the worst bond rating in the nation, should have received a primetime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention as the nation passed $16 trillion in debt–on the watch of fellow Illinois Democrat, President Barack Obama. 

Quinn’s job was to attack Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He did so with enthusiasm, hitting Romney for–wait for it–adding to the state’s debt. He also attacked Romney on job creation, saying that Massachusetts under Romney ranked 47th out of 50 states. Illinois under Quinn ranks… 48th out of 50. (And Romney governed during a period of full employment, while Quinn is presiding over high unemployment.)

Just as Illinois has been downgraded under Quinn, so, too, was the U.S. credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under President Obama. And President Obama is proposing the same solution–higher taxes–that Quinn has used in Illinois, killing jobs while failing to close the state’s exploding budget deficit.

Gov. Quinn is a lumbering billboard advertising the failure of Democrat party’s in Obama’s one-party home state. He is an embarrassment to his party–whose union base is abandoning him now that he has begun making feeble noises about pension reforms. So for him to have been granted so prominent and appropriate a role at the Democratic National Convention ought to be considered a great personal and political achievement.

In truth, there is no better symbol of the downward direction Obama’s policies are taking us as a nation.