What Me Worry? You Worry.

Rich Miller posted a very interesting piece last week on struggling Governors, which cast some light on how Illinois' gubernatorial race might be playing out on the national scene.

And of course, the Chair of the GOP Governor's Association, Governor Mitt Romney was in town last week, claiming Blagojevich was on their target list, along with four to seven other Democrats.

That sounded kosher to me, because I always thought Blagojevich was up there on the target list. That was until I read this piece, which ranks the Governors by popularity, based on the SurveyUSA poll.

Surprisingly, Blagojevich ranked smack-dab in the middle on job approval, at 47%.

Even more surprising was to find 7 GOP governors ranked below Blagojevich. They include:

Ohio's Bob Taft (R) is not seeking re-election this year. He's mired in scandal along with the entire GOP and sitting at 18%. Republicans could easily lose this open seat race.

Alaska's Frank Murkowski (R) is up this fall. He sits at 29%, and hasn't even announced whether he'll try for re-election.

Texas' Rick Perry is at 46%, and is facing challenges not only from a Democrat, but Independent candidacies from popular Country and Western singer Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, former GOP mayor of Austin. Perry's plan to expand business taxes to include doctors is coming under heavy, heavy fire, but is backed by real estate developers seeking property tax relief.

Unfortunately for Republicans, things look terminal for the Terminator, as California's Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) sits at 35% +/61% -, doomed by a major revolt among moderates. He's now running dead-even with multi-millionaire State Controller Steve Westly. You can bet immigration will end up a hot issue there, as Schwarzenegger tries to straddle the fence between his conservative GOP base and middle-class moderates, many of whom are Latino. (note to Arnold: we can't all come into the country on acting visas).

Florida's Jeb Bush is at 55%, but he's been term-limited out of his job, and two Republicans are fighting neck-and-neck to replace him this fall. Expect some bleed-over from the U.S. Senate race while Kathleen Harris (that Kathleen Harris) tanks in the U.S. Senate race.

Indiana's Mitch Daniels (R) and Missouri's Roy Blunt (R) have two years to turn their ship around, luckily for them. They sit at 35% and 37%. Kentucky's Ernie Fletcher (R) is up in 2007. He sits at 38%.

And of course Presidential hopeful George Pataki realized he had no hopes of holding on for Governor against Democrat Elliot Spitzer, dubbed "Obama '06", who is expected to walk away with New York this fall.

If the GOP has any brains left now that Karl Rove is busy with his own troubles, they'll be focused on trying to hold on to what they've got in California, Texas, and especially swing-states Ohio and Florida. Picking up just one of those four in addition to NY would be a major coup for Democrats.

My bet is that the National GOP is smart enough to figure that out though, and all this talk about going after Blagojevich is just talk.

P.S. Mitt Romney's job approval rating is point above Blagojevich, at 48%, although he's likely to get a boost from much-heralded health care legislation.