Vote for What's-His-Name

By Dr. Lisa Barr and Chris DeJonge

Apparently New York City, with those SKYscrapers, EYE-talians and EVERYthing is too far from the prairie. Somebody needs to tell Illinois State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont) that Rudy's last name is pronounced JU-lee-AH-nee. Not Giovanni (four times). Not Geo-LAWN-ee (twice).

Kirk did point out that Giuliani's the go-to guy for Republicans in a fight. He made points with the crowd by reminding them that 9-11 happened in Giuliani's town and the former mayor had been a comforting presence for the entire nation.

The rest of the speech was spent extolling the other candidates on the ticket:

*Mitt Romney's a Mormon -- we're near Nauvoo, after all -- and he was a good governor of "ultra-liberal" Massachusetts;
*Mike Huckabee "shows you can elect good governors in the state of Arkansas";
*Ron Paul--"I passed a lot of Paul signs on I-80 down here."

The rest of the speech included attacks and occasional praise for Democratic Presidents and current candidates.

"John Kennedy did well in the Cuban missile crisis," Dillard said.

"John Edwards, that slick trial lawyer ... (expensive) haircuts," he said.

And there was even a Hillary bash. The senator knew the audience.

Perhaps his strongest material, the most well-delivered, concerned the man who inspired him to get enthusiastic about politics while still a WIU undergraduate some 40 years ago, back in 1976. That's right, Republican party patron saint Ronald Reagan spoke with Dillard in this very building. It gave him goosebumps when he remembered it tonight, he said. While an undergraduate student at Western, he got his picture taken and was inspired by the man he felt brought greatness back to the Grand Old Party.

Dillard also reminded the crowd that the GOP was founded by another man from Illinois, Abe Lincoln.

Maybe that's too tough on the distinguished and great, though. Dillard clearly appealed to the Republican platform simulation students. And afterward, he continued pleasing participants. He successfully connected with the students, reminding them that Republicans are regular people.

"We drink. We party. We're regular people," he said.

The senator may have stumbled over Giuliani's name, but he was a hit with his target audience. And he seemed to truly care about inspiring student participation.

He also told one of MPE's organizers, John Hemingway, that the convention was a great idea. Dillard siad he was glad to help "get the kids off the couches and out of the bars."