Bruce Rauner reportedly had one of those bugs that were going around last week.
Rauner didn't take any time off, and it showed. For the first time at his press conferences, he read his statements right off the page, painfully stumbling over his words.
He and his campaign also seemed grumpier last week. "Pat Quinn is not the folksy, bumbling fool he'd like us to think he is," Rauner growled on Monday. On Tuesday, Rauner's campaign barred some college journalism students from his press conference, and Rauner refused to even have a word with them afterward. On Wednesday, he turned his head and pointedly ignored a follow-up question from a Chicago TV reporter about the NFL scandals. More on that in a moment.
Maybe the recent Chicago Tribune poll that showed him trailing Governor Pat Quinn by 11 added to his physical misery. But it was Rauner's personal decision to not flood the airwaves with TV ads during the spring and summer, when Quinn didn't have the money to adequately respond. Rauner cheaped out, and now it's gonna cost him a lot more money to win this thing. So he has nobody to blame but himself.
Or maybe it was that Chicago magazine "profile" published last week. Six thousand words were spilled on its glossy pages to rehash boring stuff we already knew - apparently to give the magazine an excuse to slip a couple of needlessly invasive personal items into the middle that told us absolutely nothing about the candidate or what sort of governor he'd be.
But, hey, that's the game. There will always be those who try to use a person's family to somehow disqualify the candidate for public service. And despite the author's claims to the contrary, there's a strong suspicion among the Raunerites that the Quinnsters somehow had a role in getting this information into the public realm.
Whatever's going on - sickness, a bit of poll-induced regret/fright, or protective familial anger - he and his campaign have to get over it. The Quinn campaign has obviously gotten under their skin.
Quinn looks and sounds like a kindly, harmless older man. In reality, he's a calm yet vicious street fighter who shows no remorse for his adversaries. He's at his best during periods of chaos, and this campaign is only going to get more chaotic.
And that brings us back to the NFL scandals. Chicago TV reporter Mary Ann Ahern asked Rauner on Wednesday if he'd had any communication with the Pittsburgh Steelers (of which he's a minority owner) about the recent NFL physical-abuse scandals. Rauner said he hadn't and explained that he was too occupied with winning an election. When she followed up to ask him to comment on the NFL scandals in general, he turned his head to take another question.
A better candidate would've used Ahern's question to swing for the fences. It was a prime opportunity to talk about his own commitment to fighting domestic violence, and then compare that to the very real cuts Quinn has made to domestic-violence shelters over the years.
I'm not saying that the question was planted, but the Quinnsters were most definitely talking up the issue the night before and had a press conference already scheduled Wednesday to speak about women's issues. Ahern denies ever talking to the Quinn campaign about it, and I believe her. Rauner was clearly set up - by himself.
You gotta be ready for everything in this game, and Rauner obviously wasn't. He may see himself as a cutthroat businessman, but business ain't got nothing on Illinois politics, baby.
We can all smell the blood in the water, and it's yours, Bruce. The sharks are circling, and plenty more are on the way. If you want to win this thing, you're gonna need a bigger boat.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax (a daily political newsletter) and CapitolFax.com.
