Whitewash Joe Walsh

The Daily Herald, predictably, endorsed Melissa Bean in 2008. Predictable, because of an immutable law discovered by the Political Science Dept at Robert Morris University: the probability that a local candidate wins their election will be in direct proportion to the probability they are endorsed by the Daily Herald. So when everyone (with the exception of the idiotsavants at the McHenryCountyBlog) predicted a nobrainer win for Bean, the Daily Herald unsurprisingly presented Bean with a nobrainer endorsement.

Operatives are advised to sell their shares in KFC because this is the year of everyone eating crow. Including the Daily Herald, now that Joe Walsh is the congressman representing Illinois's eighth.

A newspaper, by the nature of its business, needs access to newsmakers. Not surprisingly the Daily Herald has written a meaculpa editorial to Walsh, as if to say ... forget about all those mean things we wrote about you, Joe -- we love you now, big guy:

Is he being too ideally ambitious in his goals? Probably. Will the newness wear off and reality set it? A good chance of that. Is his viewpoint still too doctrinaire? Certainly. But for now, in this short first few days, Rep. Walsh has impressed. He has been, in this short first few days, a refreshingly different politician. We only ask, Rep. Walsh, that you keep impressing.
Mr. Walsh goes to Washington

To their credit the Daily Herald tried not to be transparently obvious. But, c'mon, everyone knows what the stakes are. Well maybe not everyone.

The corporatesuits at TeamAmerica10th contributed to the blogosphere a deadpan comic reading of the Herald editorial to rival a Steven Wright:

It seems the DH has noticed what we here at Team America also noticed some weeks before the election, and then afterwards -- and we too (having sat through a number of Walsh stump speeches that made us roll our eyes a bit and look for the hook) were early critics, but came around. This bodes well for Walsh's ability to connect with his voters and win over even editorial boards with his fresh approach... and we will wait and see how he continues to conduct himself now as a sitting Congressman. We, like the DH, have high hopes, and will continue to be solidly in Walsh's corner, assuming he continues to measure up. Keep up the good work, Joe.
Daily Herald Jumps on Joe Walsh Bandwagon in IL-8

Pace Ross Perot, that giant sucking sound you hear is not all our jobs going out of the country.