Jim was a brilliant man who brought tremendous leadership, energy and passion to his job. He made an indelible mark on McDonald's system.

In many respects, these institutions aren't very similar. On the other hand, football has been a big part of the history of the institutions.

I think the opportunity is certainly there for Republicans simply based on the governor's record, ... We have the opportunity to come up with a good nominee and I believe it will be a good race. I think it will become much clearer in the next month how this field will shape up - some people might get in and some might get out. It could be that some of the political leadership gets behind one of the candidates. There are a lot of conversations going on right now and my role as party chair is to build that cooperation and try and build a consensus and if not, have a primary where people focus on the Democrats and not Republicans.

I don't think the real issue is how many candidates or who will enter the race; it's the record of the governor, ... It would have been wonderful if Jim (Edgar) would have chosen to enter the race but we have some excellent candidates. People have lost confidence in Gov. Blagojevich and his ability to be effective. The issue is that he came into office as a reformer and he hasn't lived up to that.

The primary trade routes are now global,

no longer a city of tomorrow.