Enjoy her while she lasts; we won’t see much of Hillary after Wednesday?

Then again, I’m sure there are some people to whom that headline is cause for huzzahs and hurrahs; as in the less we see of that dame, the better off we all are.

 

Could Clinton come to Old Capitol on Wednesday?

The point is that while we are approaching the point in time when the serious campaigning will kick into gear between Hillary Clinton and her likely Republican challenger Donald Trump, the campaign season might as well be over with for us Illinoisans.

THE HOOSIERS WILL probably get more love from the candidates than we will!

It all comes down to the fact that Illinois’ electoral population is pretty well dominated by the Chicago interests organized by the Democratic Party. The other 96 counties of Illinois may well lean Republican, but it won’t be enough to matter.

Illinois’ Electoral College votes will wind up in the Clinton campaign following the Nov. 8 Election Day. And I don’t care how much bluster Trump tosses out about how he’s going to win Illinois.

He’s not. His statements are just evidence that he’s spewing a load of nonsense. Seriously, I’d give Trump a greater chance of winning the Latino vote across the country (a Latino Decisions poll released Monday says Trump only gets 16 percent support from likely Latino voters) than I do in thinking he’ll take any significant support in the Land of Lincoln.

WHO I HONESTLY think if he were alive today would be leading the effort to dump the Republican Party for a new alternative. Seriously, he dumped the Whigs to become a GOPer when he was alive. Lincoln certainly had that fighting spirit in his personality.

So what’s the point of Hillary Clinton coming to Illinois on Wednesday for the first time since our state’s primary elections (which she won, albeit narrowly, over Bernie Sanders) back in March?

She’ll get her state Capitol appearance, quite possibly on the steps of the Old Capitol Building with all its historic Lincoln ties and also to remember the way in which the Barack Obama presidential campaign (which beat up on her back in ’08) managed to use to its success.

 

Has Trump given Ind. a second thought since selling casino?

Based on the Chicago Sun-Times, Clinton may also include an evening appearance that day at a private fundraiser along the North Shore suburbs. Which is where she’ll get what her campaign really wants – more money!

THE MORE CAMPAIGN cash she has on hand, the more she can emphasize the fact that she’s running a structured campaign while Trump is putting together something completely off the seat of his pants that seems to be undermined every time his ego runs amok.

Hillary has the potential to get what she needs from Illinois right now, making it highly unlikely we’ll get to see much more of her. Our political geeks will have to satisfy themselves with the Kirk/Duckworth U.S. Senate seat fight, along with all the people who desperately will smear the reputation of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, in hopes it will somehow benefit their own campaigns’ chances!

We may have to pay attention to our neighbor to the east if we want to see campaign activity, particularly if Gov. Mike Pence does somehow wind up being the one that Trump picks to be his vice presidential running mate.

Because Trump himself has identified Indiana as one of the states that he seriously intends to compete in for the upcoming election cycle. He’s counting on keeping Indiana’s Electoral College votes in his camp. Besides, Trump still remembers the hostile reaction he got the last time he set foot in Chicago! I'm sure he'll have extra security in place for the fundraiser he has planned for Tuesday -- one for which the "Dump Trump" activists already have their pickets planned for outside the Trump Tower along the Chicago River.

The new Chicago "White House?"

IF CLINTON COULD somehow use the northwest portion of the state (the part that is an extension of the Chicago area) to her advantage, it could make the state that bills itself the “Crossroads of America” a part of the Democratic column of presidential electors – just as Obama did back in 2008.

Heck, it could be the Hoosiers who save us all from the fate of a man whose idea of “making America great” is to create a whole batch of people just like himself.

Saving us from having an orange president who looks like he ought to be the chief executive of Oompa-Loompa Land is something that ought to make us all eternally grateful to Indiana residents – at least enough to lay off the Hoosier jokes for a day or so!

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