The funniest blog; the rise of Dan Proft; Abner Mikva and Sheila Simon's great quotes; 700,000 margin for Obama prediction

I can't believe how funny "Chris Rhodes'" joincross blog on the Tom Cross site is. Again, the House Minority Leader's official blog is making fun of just about everyone. They blogged about putting Brent Hassert's old underwear on ebay (referencing Alan Keyes' hankerchief going on ebay). And they are making fun of their Peoria-area up-and-comer Aaron Schock (the 23-year-old phenom running another hail mary race in a Dem district in a Dem year) by telling him to spend a little less time at the Banana Republic. That's awesome.

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I've got to hand it to Dan Proft, a leader of IllinoisLeader.com, a GOP consultant and a movement conservative. Getting Alan Keyes is a triumph for him. That's why he moved to Calumet City -- because Dan Proft was the operative behind the successful GOP sweep of the city government in 2003. If you want to see how the Keyes campaign is going to be run, read up on Dan Proft's old columns. I've been on Beyond the Beltway with him and he's a good guy, so congratulations to Dan.

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So last night the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (website here) had an event honoring the life of Paul Simon and celebrating passage of the 2003 Illinois Ethics Act. Two highlights for me. Abner Mikva's quote on Paul Simon (paraphrased): "Lots of people say that voters get the politicians they deserve. Well, Paul thought it worked the other way too, that politicians get the constituents they deserve." And Sheila Simon (Paul Simon's daughter, Carbondale City Council member and 2012 Member of Congress -- you heard it here first!): "I can imagine my granddaughter looking through old photo albums and seeing a picture of Dad and asking about it. We'd tell them that it was at a political fundraiser, and she'd ask "What's that?" And when we'd explain that a political fundraiser is when candidates ask the people who are able to vote for them to give them checks, she would burst out laughing at the idea."

It is kind of crazy that those candidates who don't want to raise private money for campaigns aren't eligible for public funds. No wonder the racetracks and the boats and the rest of the parasites have so much clout

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Finally, here's my November prediction. 700,000 more people will vote for Barack Obama than Alan Keyes.

UPDATE: Vasyl showed me that my math is off. I think Obama will earn 65% of the vote. But if 4 million are expected to vote in a presidential year, that means I'm predicting 2.6 million for Obama and 1.4 million for everybody else. So my predicted margin is 1.2 million for Obama, not 700,000.

(And that 1.2 million margin is more people than will vote altogether in most states).