It’s one of the policy changes Rauner wants from Democrats as he continues a standoff with them over a state budget, now eight months overdue.
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► Change the way congressional districts are drawn to prevent either side from seeking advantage through “gerrymandering” districts that look like “earmuffs or spaghetti”. Dunkin said he’s critical of Speaker Madigan’s relatively curt welcome and lack of response to the president’s “building better politics” speech.
“It’s been noted often by pundits that the tone of our politics since I took office hasn’t gotten better, it’s gotten worse”, the President conceded, calling it one of his “few regrets” since taking office. “One that’s less of a spectacle, and more a battle of ideas”.
And on issue after issue, Obama’s agenda has been thwarted by stark disagreements with Republicans over the government’s role, leading Obama to act unilaterally in ways his opponents say is fit for a dictator.
President Barack Obama’s message about overcoming the bitter and seemingly intractable nature of modern politics was particularly applicable in IL, local legislators agreed on Wednesday.
The time for that politics is over.
The chamber in which Obama addressed IL lawmakers also became a microcosm of the challenges he was hoping to address.
Langfelder, who was elected previous year, met Obama in the past, before the Obama’s presidency.
Obama thanked the lawmakers Wednesday afternoon “for such a warm welcome” as he returns home.
However, the president did not explicitly mention Illinois’ budget impasse during the speech.
It was an historic day in Central Illinois two days ago when President Barack Obama came to Springfield.
Mirroring the sentiment of his campaign announcement in 2007, he went on to say, “I have no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office”.
Adding to the memory lane feel, Obama stopped at an old Springfield haunt, the Feed Store, to mingle with patrons and order a bowl of barley soup before his speech.
10, 2016, at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
Obama was accompanied by longtime aides Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.
Obama returned to Springfield on the nine-year anniversary that he announced his candidacy for President on the steps of the Old State Capitol.
Separately, an Obama Presidential Center is slated for the Southside of Chicago, and a state lawmaker has also introduced legislation that would create an official state holiday to honor the 43rd President of the United States.
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Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat who was on the Senate Democratic staff when Obama was in the Legislature, said only time will tell.
