After almost three years in office, Gov. Rod Blagojevich managed to turn an entire state against him.

Our governor has suffered from a severe lack in good judgment from day one. It almost seems as though Blagojevich is more concerned about his image of successfully managing the state. And he’s not even doing a good job of keeping his image clean.

Let’s start with the most obvious of Blago’s lapses in judgment: the Illinois tollway. In an effort to clear the interstate of congestion, Blagojevich has instead managed to move a whole bunch of cars from one lane to another.

Oh, and he’s also managed to take away the jobs of countless Illinois tollway workers as well. Toll workers recently held a rally to protest this questionable move by Blago, claiming that they will no longer have a way to put food on their dinner tables. But I suppose this is just an insignificant sacrifice for our drastically improved highways.

Let’s break down Blago’s tollway plan that was supposed to relieve us of traffic congestion. First, our governor’s plan has done absolutely nothing to relieve congestion. By doubling tolls and forcing Illinois residents to buy I-Pass, Blago has only managed to stockpile traffic into a single lane.

Perhaps the governor should have taken this minor issue into consideration before he decided to empty the wallets of Illinois residents.

The word on the street is that Blago will be out of a job come 2006.

Moves like this are the major reason why this assumption is most likely fact.

Moving on, let’s look at another of our governor’s more recent flops: the European flu vaccine we can’t use. Illinois and a handful of other state and municipal partners could very well be on the hook for nearly $7 million worth of flu vaccine they can’t import or use.

This brings up a logical question. Is Blagojevich governing for the people or for himself? Judging from his political moves, it certainly seems like the latter. Regarding the federal government’s rejection of Blago’s plan, spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said, “We’re still holding out hope the FDA will give us approval. We’re playing the waiting game.”

So let’s summarize what we have so far. Illinois has traffic congestion in one or two I-Pass lanes as opposed to a relatively free flow of traffic before January of this year, and this is topped off with illegal, unusable flu vaccine purchased because of an egotistical power trip.

No, the people of Illinois certainly will not be rolling out the red carpet for Blago’s 2006 campaign. Our governor had better savor the remaining months he has left in office. Our main concern should be just what kind of crazy ideas Blago has in store for us. It’s actually rather obvious. Our governor is doing things just for the sake of doing them. Blagojevich needs to take a step back and view the full implications of his political moves before he goes through with them. This method of governing would have saved many Illinois jobs, including Blagojevich’s.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.