Even if you do not watch or like college football, you may at least appreciate historic moments even if they are sports moments. Namely, five of the eight top-ranked college football teams lost last week to five "underdog" teams. Historic!
We are not even halfway through the college football season yet, and the national rankings have been reshuffled like a deck of cards. Message? That's why they play the game, because "it ain't over until it's over." Baseball’s Yogi Berra popularized that statement, and Lenny Kravitz recorded a popular song with that theme.
This is also true in politics.
Illinois State Senator Jim Oberweis is running for U.S. Senate against longtime Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, who has been in Congress for 31 years. I think you can safely say that Durbin is a career politician and Oberweis is the "underdog" candidate.
Last Friday evening, I was in Chicago to speak at a fundraising event for Jim. In a radio interview earlier that day the host insinuated that Oberweis didn't have a chance against the longtime incumbent Senator Durbin, so he wondered why am I trying to help him.
I told the Chicago radio host and his listeners that I've been an "underdog" most of my life and have been blessed, so helping a would-be underdog Senate candidate does not scare me. In fact, it inspires me!
It inspires me because Jim is like a "brother from another mother", and I'm not talking about his color because he's not black. That brought laughter from the audience as expected, as I went on to tell them it was because we are both common sense conservatives, problem-solving businessmen, and we are both granddads. The last point is important because that's his inspiration for running as it was mine when I ran for both the U.S. Senate in Georgia in 2004, and the presidency in 2011.
It ain't about us or our generation. It's about what kind of nation and world we are going to leave for the next generations. We both want them to have the same opportunity for that fragile American dream that we had. Neither of us want to leave them with the direction this nation is headed.
I'm also inspired by Jim Oberweis's Senate candidacy because the Republicans are trying to retake control of the Senate, but the D.C. Republican establishment does not believe Jim can un-seat a 31-year Democrat incumbent. A victory for Jim would be a political shocker, and it could happen!
As I challenged his enthusiastic supporters at the event, their involvement by donating money and calling their friends to vote for Jim could be the difference maker. The reasons are that low voter turnout benefits the incumbent because of name ID, and a call from a friend or acquaintance goes a long way in helping to counter a lot of voter apathy and disgust with the way things are going in D.C.
If the Republicans win all of the Senate seats they currently think they can win based on polls and political analytics, Jim's victory could be a bonus. And if some of those would-be Republican wins were to stumble, then Jim's victory would be even more historic.
If that happens, then the Democrats would be barking and complaining even louder for at least another two years about those bad Republicans.
Now, that would be music to my ears!
