The anti-Blago

Pat Quinn has truly hit the ground running, which is ironic as, unlike his predecessor, he doesn’t appear to be much of a jogger.  In the first day and a half on the job, Quinn did many things his predecessor rarely, if ever did:

• He went to bed and awoke in the governor’s mansion
• He worked hard on state business ALL DAY LONG
• He held a cordial work meeting with the other state officers
• He removed the ego-gratification signs erected on tollways by his predecessor
• He praised hard working state employees

And, unlike his predecessor, who believed a permanent campaign was preferable to governing, the new governor favors a shorter campaign season to allow some time to fix some of the damage.

Pat Quinn’s un-Blagojevich behavior continues Saturday, when he is expected to receive a very warm welcome when he addresses an AFSCME meeting in Springfield.

Though his predecessor often spoke about “working 24/7 for the people”, as any reporter who has covered Quinn over the last 30+ years can tell you, for better or worse, Quinn really means it.  That probably means lots of weekend news conferences.

Bruuuuce!

It takes a big man to admit a mistake, and there aren’t many bigger than The Boss, who admits he violated his own principles when he agreed to an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart.  You can be sure Bruce will make this right, but probably not from the stage of the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday.

Updike’s ode to Teddy Ballgame

One more thing:  I like to think of the Super Bowl as the beginning of the baseball season, which is a cheap way of weaving in a link to some of the best baseball writing not done by a baseball writer.  John Updike died this week, leaving many treasures, not the least of which was his 1960 essay on the last game of Ted Williams.