Everybody freaking out during the final days of 2018 election cycle

I suppose it’s only natural; after devoting more than a full year of one’s life to trying to get elected to political office, the final days of the election cycle are going to bring out those last-minute jitters.

OBAMA: Returning home, or doing Dem duty?

Resulting in acts of desperation meant to ensure that nothing gets overlooked. After all, coming up a loser on Tuesday would merely mean the past year of a politico’s life amounts to nothing more than wasted time.

I COULDN’T HELP but interpret the actions of Bruce Rauner in such a manner when I saw his campaign try to make an issue of the fact that former President Barack Obama is going to be in the Chicago metro area on Sunday.

He’ll be in the city proper for an 3 p.m. event at the University of Illinois at Chicago (the same place where protesters once turned away Donald Trump himself). It will be a large-scale political rally where Obama will go out of his way to urge people to vote for Democrats come Tuesday.

He’ll be doing the same thing that same day in Gary, Ind., during a noon-hour rally at the Genesis Convention Center in the city's downtown.

Only there, instead of touting J.B. Pritzker for governor, he’ll be singing the praises of Joe Donnelly for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

BECAUSE IF DEMOCRATS are to have a chance of taking control of the Senate, keeping the seat from Indiana in their column is just as important as any of the places currently represented by Republicans that they dream of swiping.

PRITZKER: Getting Obama jolt prior to Tuesday

If anything, it may be more likely that Pritzker will put the Illinois governor post in the Democratic Party column than it will be that Donnelly will be able to prevent Hoosier ideologues from booting him from office in exchange for Republican Mike Braun.

Which is why Rauner is trying to make an issue of this. Why else, Bruce asks, would Obama feel compelled to visit Chicago unless Dems seriously feared a Rauner re-election.

Pure nonsense talk, if you think about it logically. But then again, political operatives of all persuasions rarely do – particularly when it gets to this point in the election season.

BUT THEN AGAIN, for Donnelly, an Obama visit may be a bigger deal – largely because the ideologues of Indiana always thought Joe got the Senate victory in 2012 largely on a fluke. Hence, they’re going all out to kick him out of office, and Donnelly may well feel the need to use all the weapons possible to get the Gary vote (one of the few parts of Indiana where Democrats prevail) to turn out to the max.

DONNELLY: Needs Obama jolt to win

Which then allows for Obama to be so close to his spiritual home (even if he now is a suburban D.C. guy, more than anything) that he can also make the two-days-before-Election Day appearance on behalf of Pritzker.

But it’s not just the Pritzker and Donnelly campaigns, along with that of Rauner, desperately looking to gain themselves attention.

For there’s also Toni Preckwinkle, whose campaign for Chicago mayor has until Feb. 26 to sway voters. Yet she’s trying to make people think it’s all important to turn out to vote on Tuesday to show support for her three months from now!

FOR PRECKWINKLE SAYS that a strong voter turnout for politically-progressive candidates on Tuesday will scare the opposition. “It’ll signal to our opponents that they need to spend as much money as possible to slow our movement down. We can’t let that happen,” she said.

PRECKWINKLE: She wants campaign cash!

Of course, Preckwinkle’s “solution” to this “problem?” Donate more money to her campaign, so she can fight back in next year’s election cycle. That’s literally the theme of her latest fundraising appeal.

Not that she’d be upset with having a larger campaign fund, since it seems some of her mayoral challengers (particularly William Daley, who already has come up with $1 million-plus for his political aspirations next year) have developed a large gap between her and the amount of cash she hopes to have on hand.

The jitters are fluttering about for political people. We literally don’t get a break between this election cycle, and the upcoming one.

  -30-