I'm pleased to see that Mike Ditka approves Gay Marriage.

[trumad]

[w13rd0]

1. Sounds like another JD Hayworth, Rush Limpballs...

...clone to me. Here's hoping Obama crushes him with class and swiftness...

[Touchdown]

2. And with a name like Ditka, what would you expect? n/t

:evilgrin:

[lovedems]

3. I don't know much about football but my husband thinks Ditka running

for senate would be the best thing that could happen to Obama.

Here are his reasons. He said Ditka is dumb. Listen to him talk for 5 minutes and it is clear. He said Ditka WAS NOT a good coach. The only reason he was with the Bears so long was because of Walter Payton. Bears were known for their great defense which was ran by Buddy (?)don't recall his last name. It was all the defensive coach and not Ditka. He backs up the Payton claim by saying Ditka tried to do the same thing when he went to the Saints in LA. He spent all of their money on one guy, hoping for the Payton effect and it didn't work out. He was fired after 2 years. (He thinks if you follow football closely, you will know Ditka was not a good coach.)

He is a total asshole. He said there are probably hours worth of tapes where Ditka is cussing reporters out and he believes Ditka punched a reporter at one time and that is on tape. He wanted me to ask Chicago DUers if he was correct about that.

When I told him about Ditka possibly replacing Ryan on the republican ticket for senate, he just laughed and laughed. Living in Illinois, I have a vested interest in Obama and was nervous about Ditka running. My husband said no way! That would be the best thing to happen for Obama.

Any thoughts?

[trumad]

5. Ditka was an awful coach and his gig in New Orleans proved it.

He basically coasted his last season in N.O and was properly fired for it. He's all fluff.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Try This Evidence...

A couple years ago, Ditka traded all of his draft picks...10 players for that one player in the picture above. He bet the franchise, literally, on one running back...who would turn out to be a bust for Ditka (Da coach was gone a year later).

What's that say about Ditka's ability to vote on giving the authority to wage war.

Greetings from a fellow Illinois DU'er.

[lovedems]

9. HEY!

:hi:

My husband (and I have to take his word for it as I don't follow football) says that if the media is true to form, we will soon be witnessing all of his "asshole" interviews should he decide to run for senate.

Do you know if he punched a reporter and it was caught on tape? That would go over well! Just what Illinois needs, another dumbass republican representing our state!

[KharmaTrain]

17. There's The Throwing Gum At The Fans...

Or the tantrums in press conferences...my fave is the "zero...that's you buddy" bit (it'd be a great Obama commercial).

Also why not drag up his DUIs...a couple were real COPS material I'm told...those mug shots have to be Nick Nolte quality.

The media here is already snickering loudly...especially the Sports media that hated him when he was a coach (since he was such an arrogant asshole) and now think he's a has-been. Kharma is such a bitch! LOL

I'm really enjoying Ditka being such an egohead that he's gonna end up spending a bunch of his own money only to find out lots of people in this state don't love him.

The game here, IMHO, is he'll get lots of national media exposure. Faux will give him his own show and CNN will do an hour long retrospective of "Iron Mike - American Legend"...then he'll resume his role as Bob Dole baffoon on Viagra commercials.

Amazing what people will do to impress others. Run, Mike Run!

[lovedems]

22. Didn't he also try a stint as a broadcaster, pissed everyone off

and then that gig was up?

My husband has your attitude exactly, Run, Mike Run! He thinks it is typical of the Illinois republican leadership to get that idiot on camera to represent the party. He keeps saying, "just wait until you hear him talk. He is NOT smart and it is evident after listening to him for 30 seconds!" If that is the best the republican leadership can come up with, that would explain Illinios shift to a solid blue state.

If the republicans want to run on values nationally this year, I would love to see the temper tantrums, hear about the DUI's and have a general analysis of this guys career.

I was initally nervous about him running but now I am all for it!

[KharmaTrain]

30. Listen To Tom Roeser On WLS On Sundays Nights

It's generally a very boring local Repugnican smooze-fest...loaded with Clinton slams and Bunnypants ass-kissing, but not lately.

Roeser came out big against the "establishment party" (he's one of those "social conservatives"...translation: fundie) and that the best thing that can happen is the Repugnicans go down big and that a true housecleaning begins.

They dismissed Ditka as a desperation move...more along the lines that he's not "one of them" (hivedweller) and the only candidate they thought was acceptible was Rauschenberger. I love it when slime eat their own.

I'm pretty sure Ditka will be kept on somewhat of a leash...but it can only go so far. I'll bet he gets a handler who attempts to "soundbite" him, but there's only so far Ditka will go.

Again, I expect the national media will play this doofus up, but the local media will have a field day picking him apart. I just got off the phone with a friend downstate. He laughed that why would St. Louis Ram fans vote for a former Chicago Bears coach? Nuff said!

Cheers!

[lovedems]

31. LOL! You've got that right!

A Ram's fan would rather eat their own hand then vote for a former Bears coach!

I think his ignorance will be apparent in the first week of his campaign should he decide to run. Here is a snip from an interview he did last week... If this guy isn't an accident waiting to happen....

snip

People think I'm something special, I'm just a guy

No, I know Judy, probably it's something I have to make up my mind totally about and my wife has to make up her mind about it, she already told people that she'd divorce me if I did it, so I don't know. . .


You talk about banning smoking. Okay, why don't we ban abortion? Let's talk about things that are really important. You know you talk about, well, you think one thing can harm your health, the other one takes a life.

more at link if you can stomach it!


http://www.illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=17545


He is a dumbass and Obama would take him to the cleaners.

[trumad]

10. And the great thing about that

is a couple of years later N.O traded Ricky to my Dolphins for a couple of draft picks. Make no mistake...Ricky is a great running back... But the whole draft? They say Ditka did it cause he didn't want to stick around for the whole draft...He had to Golf.

[KharmaTrain]

20. Ditka Had The Greatest Running Back

A guy named Payton...the one who never got the ball to score a TD in a Superbowl he gave body and soul to get to. Ditka was more interested in turning it into the William Perry circus.

I never thought Ditka was a great coach considering all the talent he had (the late Jim Finks put together) and alienated all his best players. That team should have won several Superbowls...it won one despite Ditka.

[bushwakker]

4. Ditka can win that Senate seat

I wouldn't dismiss his chances. Of course, if he proves to be a real bozo, completely inarticulate and unable to grasp any issues then he'll lose. But if he can maintain a minimal amount of connection to the issues and can reliably repeat the mantra they've written for him (a la Reagan) then he is a formidable opponent. Remember, candidates like him have a lower br to climb over. He will be teflon. He will stay very non-specific in his positions talking about general "themes" like "common sense" and "America" and "I'm not a politician". He will run essentially non-partisan as Arnold and Jesse did. He could easily win this seat. Remember, an African-merican will poll better than the actual results on election day. Also, Ditka will no doubt bring in some high profile African-Americans to campaign for him. This race is a toss up.

[trumad]

6. You over-estimate his popularity.

I've frequented Chicago Bears forums in the past and he ain't that popular....

[bushwakker]

8. How many white guys are NOT going to vote Da Coach?

Again, if he reaches a minimum amount acceptability as a candidate then he has a strong base to start with. He'll also attract new voters. Can't you see him at Bears and Illini games this fall talking to his people?

[trumad]

11. Not all errr "white guys" are ignorant.

Ditka will get trounced....

[bushwakker]

21. Most of us seem to be

Ditka will give a lot of mullett heads a reason to go to the polls.

[trumad]

23. LOL

mullet heads... Forgot about them... I hope it's electronic voting cause it will fuck with their minds...

[lovedems]

12. Again, I have to go by my husbands logic because I don't follow

football.

We were commenting that Jesse Ventura was a failed experiment. He said take all of Ventura's failures, multiply them by 100 and you have Ditka. Arnold is looking to be a failed experiment as well.

[NewJeffCT]

15. Arnold still has high approval ratings

So, the jury is out...

[bushwakker]

18. The point is - Arnold won

And Ditka will use his playbook in this campaign. Not sure wher you get the idea that Arnold has failed. The people there seem to like him. It's all image over substance - but it's working. I would bet that Arnold is easily re-elected in Cal.

[lovedems]

28. Are you kidding? I have seen on national news that he hasn't kept his

campaign promises and that chances are he will have to raise taxes next fiscal year! The only reason he didn't have to raise them this year is because he has borrowed money and California can't afford to borrow money! From what I saw on CNN (I know, I take the source with a grain of salt) but there was a reporter from the Sacramento Bee who basically said Arnold doesn't have a clue as to what he is doing.

My dad and brother live in California, they are republicans and they say Arnold is a failure, big time.

[NewJeffCT]

13. I agree

It's not just in California that people are starstruck, though at least Jesse Ventura had some background in politics.

And, the Reps will run him just like Arnold... *if* Ditka debates at all, it will be only with questions in advance so Iron Mike can spit out a few platitudes that appeal to the conservative base and/or to the blue collar types. I watched Arnold's debate - both Bustamente & winger McClintock(?) seemed much more competent, intelligent & knowledgeable of the issues, even though I disagreed with McClintock on the issues. Post-debate, however, Arnold's poll numbers shot up.

If Obama goes after him aggressively, he looks like he is picking on a weakling / neophyte. If he doesn't go after Ditka, it gives Ditka legitimacy. It's a tough position.

[KharmaTrain]

14. Ditka's Got Raygun's Boiler Plate Speech

He gets paid a nice chunk of change to parade around Chamber Of Commerce drinkie-drinkie meetings and gives "the speech", just like Raygun did. Just cough up the money and the free food and booze, and he'll be there.

Ditka's popularity in Chicago waned when he took off for New Orleans, and without Chicago, he ain't gonna do an "Arnold" here. The Grabowskis in Chicago are very pro-labor and all they need see is the (R) next to his name (it might as well be Jesus Christ) and they'll take a pass.

The Illinois Repugnicans are putting this doofus up, since it looks like he'll spend the coin to play candidate. There was a local Repugnican talk show about this Sunday night that gave a real insight into the deep splits in the Illinois GOOP...and it was openly discussed about either not voting in the election or just voting select candidates (and the emphasis was on "lower ticket Repugnicans").

I'd suggest you check out Barak Obama...whose gained a lot of respect in this state over the past few months. Ditka may make a 40 point loss only a 30 point loss.

The only dark clouds for Democrats here is the rift between Blago & Madigan that is starting to look too much like business as usual in Springfield.

More of this stuff is talked about in the Illinois forum.

[terrya]

19. It's not going to happen.

I'm not going to say that Obama has nothing to worry about but the idea that Ditka can win this is absurd.

Kerry is going to win Illinois. Illinois has been trending Democratic for a number of years now. Plus, Obama has been raising a lot of money in the past few months. While the Republicans have been dealing with Jack Ryan and his problems.

The African-American community is OVERWHELMINGLY in favor of Obama. There hasn't been this much excitement over a Senate candidate in Illinois since Carol Mosely Braun in 1992. And I just don't think a former coach of the Chicago Bears is going to make much headway...especially so late in the game, to use a sports metaphor.

[bushwakker]

25. Ditka is plausible though

He will certainly have some high profile African American athletes supporting him. His campaign will be totally managed from DC using an Arnold non-partisan strategy. I hope I'm way off base here.

[chiburb]

27. I changed my mind "bushwakker"...

It's better to agree with you that Barak should be running scared of Ditka. Why? Because the Repukes will be able to point to this thread as evidence that Ditka would be the best candidate... otherwise why would we be worried?

Bring him on. I can't wait to see the 1st debate...

[bushwakker]

29. I assume there will be polling out within a few days

I bet that Ditka is closer than Ryan. Regardless Obama will not be running scared of anyone. Ditka is a wild card and could potetially win this race. Put it this way - I feel less confident of picking up this seat than I did a week ago.

[chiburb]

24. Nothing personal, but you're out of your mind.

Barak Obama is the real deal, Ditka is recognized as a caricature by most people in Illinois, his business deals yield too much money for him, and his dick is limp (not so "Iron" Mike any more).

This race is NOT a toss-up, and won't be close.

[bushwakker]

26. I hope you're right

Maybe I'm being paranoid - but these GOP celebrity candidacies scare me. Ditka is actually the perfect cabdidate for them. Too stupid to really engage he will just float above it all rambling on the boilerplate themes.

[Octafish]

16. He's strong as a horse.

And twice as smart.