State Sen. Kirk Dillard, Republican of DuPage County, Illinois, announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for governor today, the very same day that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced she would not be running for governor (or for the U.S. Senate, for that matter).

Asked at his announcement speech what he thought of Madigan's declaration, Dillard replied, "She's been a good attorney general and if she wants to stay there, that's fine ... I look forward to having Lisa Madigan as attorney general when I'm the governor."

There's only one problem with Dillard's statement -- there's a Republican candidate by the name of Joe Birkett who's already announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for, you guessed it, the Attorney General's office.

By the way, arguing against my last post, there actually was a president who had less experience in major public office before winning the presidency than would Sarah Palin, were she to win the White House after only two and a half years as governor -- Woodrow Wilson, who was elected president in 1912 after having been elected governor of New Jersey for the first time in 1910.

Of course, Wilson benefited from the split in the Republican Party -- former President Teddy Roosevelt chose to challenge incumbent president/Roosevelt successor William Howard Taft for the GOP nomination at the 1912 GOP national convention, and, failing to win, had left the GOP to form the Bull Moose Party to contest for the presidency in the general election.