Hoosier-land a haven for people who want the triviality of electoral politics

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence came out publicly recently as one of those cantankerous Republicans who can’t the thought of Donald Trump as their party’s presidential nominee.

PENCE: Backing Cruz

“I will be voting for Ted Cruz,” the governor said to reporter-types of his intentions in the Indiana primary elections coming up Tuesday.

TYPICALLY, GETTING A governor, no matter how ridiculous or absurd or disliked he may be, would be a significant plus for a campaign.

Yet Trump, the New York real estate developer with a taste for the garish, managed to one-up him; digging one-time Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight out of retirement to publicly endorse him.

It’s a sad commentary on our society that Bobby’s babbling about electoral politics probably was taken more seriously than anything Pence said.

Either that, or else the senator from Texas who some like to deride as a closet Canadian is just that pathetic a candidate that he’s likely to lose the Indiana primary.

THE ONLY REAL question is whether Hoosier voters will let him be competitive with Trump on Tuesday, or will Cruz get his clock cleaned – so to speak.

Of course, there also are those who were more impressed with the fact that former President William J. Clinton bothered to show up in the heart of downtown Gary on Saturday to express his own political love for his wife, the apparent Democratic presidential nominee Hillary R. Clinton. Of course, after all the aggravation he has caused his wife throughout their lives, he owes her a few hours of time spent in Gary.

Did the one-time Gary State Bank building located a block from City Hall, across the street from the dilapidated convention center and just down the street from the main entrance to the U.S. Steel plant look impressive enough with its recent restorations to make it worthy as the scenery for a presidential campaign visit.

Back in the news, for a day

Or did people wind up getting bogged down in the urban decay of the surrounding blocks?

PERHAPS WE SHOULD note who’s missing from this list of trivial appearances meant to tout presidential candidates. We didn’t get any prominent Bernie Sanders visits in recent days.

Does Sanders deep down sense that it’s over (even though he publicly insists he’s staying in the primary race to the very end – just as Clinton herself did back in 2008 even though it was clear she would lose to eventual President Barack Obama)?

CLINTON: Touting his wife in Gary

Or could it be that the idea of spending too much time in Indiana was too appalling for even “the Bern” to do this past weekend? A place where he’d already scaled back his campaign spending – despite the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that

showed Clinton with a 4 percent lead (and a 4 percent margin of error).

A statistical tie! If Sanders winds up losing Indiana on Tuesday by a mere point, he may wind up giving himself the ultimate kick in the behind for his lack of activity!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: We in Illinois had our own presidential ballot chance back on March 15, and many of us were more obsessed with picking a new state’s attorney or senator to worry that we backed Clinton and Trump as the major political party nominees for the November general election. Which means we probably have little reason to mock Indiana if they wind up doing the same come Tuesday.

EXTRA: How about Bob Knight for Prez? Nah, he'd get whomped by Ditka!

I’m not the kind of individual who thinks it’s cute or interesting or in any way appealing for non-political people to start mouthing off about government, something they usually don’t have a clue about!

So the idea that one-time Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight came out in support of Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations seemed nothing but silly to me.

IN ALL HONESTY, it would have made more sense if Trump, the New York real estate developer nationally reknowned for his garish public behavior, had been on hand to endorse the presidential aspirations of Bobby Knight.

That would make about as much sense, since I suspect Knight is beloved enough amongst the Hoosier crowd that he’d still be the Indiana basketball coach if not for that 2000 incident where he is alleged to have choked one of his ballplayers.

Not that Knight, who called Donald “the best man for the job,” is the first sports celeb to get behind Trump. One-time Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman has backed him publicly.

Let’s also not forget earlier this year when one-time Chicago Bears player and coach Mike Ditka bad-mouthed President Barack Obama and said he’d gladly vote for Trump as his replacement.

PERHAPS WE COULD put some sort of head-to-head battle between Knight and Ditka, to see which one would be a more favorable fantasy candidate for public office.

Knight may well take Indiana’s 11 Electoral College votes.

Yet I somehow suspect that “Da Coach” would clean Bobby’s clock – much to the disgust of those of us who prefer to take this presidential election process seriously.

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