Illinois Sucks

Demographer Joel Kotkin, writing again for Forbes, takes a close look at President Obama's home state Illinois and finds much not to like. The recent sentencing of Governor Blagojevich is obviously what triggered the article. See this list of shame:

Since 1973, for example, 27 Chicago Aldermen have been convicted by U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois. (snip) Both Gov. George Ryan (who served from 1999 to 2003 and and his successor Ron Blagojevich have been convicted a major crimes. So have four of the state’s last eight governors.

Of course it isn't just elected officials who are bent, Illinois has:

A political climate that also includes the also newly convicted Antonin “Tony” Rezko, a real estate speculator and early key Obama backer, sentenced late last month to a ten-year prison sentence.

No demographer would omit population flows, Kotkin reports:

According to the last Census, Chicago lost more than 200,000 people during the last decade.