Republicans met in Decatur this weekend for their state party convention, giving members an opportunity to hash out strategies for the rest of this election year. Gov. Blagojevich's poor reputation is an obvious boon for the GOP, but observers suggest that Barack Obama's position atop the national ticket will drive Democratic turnout in 2008, delivering a huge advantage to statewide Democratic candidates, as was the case in Illinois' 14th District this March.

Yet State Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington was in full denial mode about Obama's expected coattails:

Brady said Obama's liberal political stance could also be a weak point.

"There's a great number of people in this state who do not agree with what Barack Obama believes in," Brady said.

It's not clear what planet Brady has been living on for the last four years, but he obviously missed Obama's U.S. Senate campaign in 2004, when 70 percent of Illinoisans backed him. He also apparently ignored Obama's romp through Illinois' Democratic primary back in February, during which he garnered over 64 percent of the vote, including huge swaths of Independent and Republican voters. If the Illinois GOP thinks running hard against Obama is going to deliver the goods this November, they are in worse shape then we thought.