Will anyone vote for Gary Johnson just because the Chicago Tribune said to?

It was about a month ago that I, while having lunch with some former work colleagues, made the bold prediction that the Chicago Tribune would wind up eating crow and endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

JOHNSON: Trib pick for prez

It was made clear by the newspaper back during the primary that Hillary Clinton was not an acceptable option. In fact, the newspaper back in March dissed the entire Democratic Party primary process and anyone who was looking there for national leadership.

THE ONE-TIME “WORLD’S Greatest Newspaper” actually backed Marco Rubio in the Republican primary even though it was already clear by that point that Trump was well on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

I figured that since they had so clearly rejected Clinton as an option, they’d have to find some rhetorical way of taking back their Trump hostility. Probably something along the lines of the need to support someone who’d back conservative Republican principles and pick GOP operatives to handle the actual work of governing. Which is something that Hillary certainly won’t do.

Well, it seems I was off a bit. While most newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times that shares Tribune ownership, and the Chicago Sun-Times, are begrudgingly endorsing Clinton (the Arizona Republic out in Phoenix says she’s the first non-Republican they’ve ever backed for president), the Tribune had to figure out its own way of being different.

The Chicago Tribune on Friday let word get out that they are officially backing the presidential aspirations of Gary Johnson, He’s the former New Mexico governor who has the Libertarian Party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 general elections.

IT SEEMS I was right in thinking that the Tribune would not be able to get in line with the concept of “President Hillary Clinton.” But the Tribune, which calls Johnson “a principled option for U.S. president,” is now the newspaper of choice for those political malcontents who wish they could cast idealistic votes.

Will Republic readers care more about coupons?

Although I find it humorous that the people most anxious to find an alternate political party are going out of their way to ignore Jill Stein and the Green Party. None of that liberal freakish nonsense for them.

They’re willing to ignore the portions of libertarian ideology that says laws against narcotics use, restricting abortion and a military draft are bad (on the grounds that government shouldn’t be involved in such things) because they like the idea that firearms restrictions, public schools and taxes, in general, are equally abhorrent.

Natl. Enquirer picked Trump during primary season

That’s what the Tribune has thrown its lot in with, at least for this election cycle. Come 2020, they’ll be back in bed with the Republican Party – which, I suspect, they were looking forward to rejoining this election cycle following two terms of bringing itself in line with backing Barack Obama.

BECAUSE I’M PRETTY sure the Tribune made that decision largely because they knew their readership would revolt if they had dared to go against the hometown boy – even if he was really born and raised in Honolulu (with a stint of his childhood in Malaysia).

As it is, Hillary Clinton (if elected) would be the first Chicago-born U.S. president. But she went out east to college, then followed her husband to Arkansas. Meaning she wrote us off, so they can justify writing her off as a hometown girl made good.

Oddly enough, the Tribune may have got one-upped in their attempt to gain public attention for their Libertarian endorsement.

Because it seems the Detroit News made the same selection, publishing an editorial that, like many other newspapers, apologizes for not picking the Republican for president this election cycle after generations (143 years, to be exact) of having done so.

THEN, THERE WAS USA Today, which came up with its own editorial that didn’t tell us who to vote for. It said we should NOT vote for Trump; calling him “unfit for the presidency.”

Johnson doesn't know 'Allepo?' Do voters know either of these guys?

It really is the trend this time around. “Don’t Vote for Trump!!!” Which makes me wonder how many would-be voters would feel compelled to listen. I suspect the minions who are backing Trump will react with revulsion. Just like at the Dallas Morning News, which said that its “Vote Hillary” endorsement resulted in significant subscription cancellations!

There are very few newspapers (such as the Santa Barbara News-Press) willing to publicly pick The Donald as their endorsed candidate. For two of them – the New York Post and the New York Observer – it can be argued that those publications have relied on Trump’s boorish antics for so many years to generate their news copy that they need a Trump presidency to create stories.

Something has to fill all that otherwise-white space in the paper that goes around the ads for testosterone-production pills that run on Page 17.

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: As for those people who are getting all worked up now that Gary Johnson didn’t know any world leaders, I suspect 90 percent of the electorate doesn’t know either – and many probably think the people who do know have way too much free time on their hands. That may be the real problem our society faces these days -- and why Trump does as well as he does in public polling.