No more Mayor Rahm-bo?!?

For all practical purposes, the era of Rahm Emanuel as Chicago mayor is over.

EMANUEL: Kaput as of Monday, but will he return?

The transition to the Lightfoot Years comes Monday, so unless Rahm has some sort of “midnight surprise” planned for the weekend, his time being able to do much of anything in municipal office is kaput!

ALL THOSE “HUZZAHS!!!” we’re hearing are from people pleased that we’ve managed to survive the past eight years, and that Emanuel is no more. Or so they think.

Because personally I think it’s wishful thinking to believe that the Era of Rahm is over and that we’ve sent the man packing into political oblivion.

I’ve heard the same political reports of the mayor saying he’ll focus his life back on the business community – for the time being. But I can’t truly envision him a political has-been.

If anything, I won’t be the least bit surprised to learn Emanuel becomes a “behind the scenes” political player who winds up being connected in some form to whichever of the dozens of Democrats with dreams of becoming president in 2020.

THE MAN DID, after all, serve as a significant part of that 2006 effort that shifted the House of Representatives back to Democratic Party control. He did serve as a White House chief of staff under the “beloved’ Barack Obama presidency that many progressive politicos fantasize about returning to in spirit.

TRUMP: Do we despise more than Rahm-bo?

Could it be that many of the same people who are thinking thoughts of “Drop Dead!” at the very thought of Rahm Emanuel’s continued existence will wind up touting the man’s merits (through gnashed teeth, most likely) at the fact he’s likely affiliated with whoever it is they wind up touting for president?

Because it may wind up being that these people of progressive political leanings will despise the notion of “four more years” for Donald Trump far more than they do the thought of Emanuel.

They may wind up coming to appreciate his hard-core political leanings that are willing to play hardball just as much as any Republican ideologue does. Adopting the notion that history only remembers who won an election, and doesn’t care in the least about praising the merits of the good loser.

Can Rahm turn unknown Dem into 2020 winner?

OF COURSE, THERE were those people who always despised the notion of Emanuel as mayor – maybe because they’d rather be the loser with a so-called sense of morals who can then blame the opposition politicos for running roughshod over everything they desire for our society.

Looking back on commentaries I wrote back in those days of 2011 when Emanuel beat three other mayoral hopefuls to avoid having a run-off election, what catches my attention was the notion that Emanuel would be the mayoral hopeful who placed the business interests of downtown first.

Not all that different from the days of the Mayor Daley eras (both elder and younger), if you think about it. So perhaps we shouldn’t be the least bit shocked by the way the Emanuel era turned out.

For those who still rant about the way Emanuel early on oversaw the closing of public schools in predominantly black or Latino neighborhoods, the reality is that many of those schools were failing their students. You can say Rahm didn’t do enough to replace them, but we’d be worse off if many of those schools were still lingering in existence – providing inadequate services for the students stuck there because of a lack of alternatives.

THEN, THERE’S THE key issue that I’m sure upsets people – the relations between police and the African-American segment of Chicago. As evidenced by the 2014 shooting death of a teenager that took more than four years to finally get a case to trial – and resulted in a police officer getting a minimal penalty.

LIGHTFOOT: Her era begins Monday at noon

Although to some, even that three-plus year jail sentence is too harsh. But for others, the injustice is that it wasn’t Emanuel himself who had to suffer some punishment.

I don’t doubt that the same people who were pushing for a 90-something-year prison term for Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke are also the ones who would have wanted Emanuel to suffer an indignity – rather than being able to walk away from office with his political win streak intact.

A streak that I really believe will be put to the test by those people eager to Dump Trump next year. We may have to decide just which character do we despise more – and will we have to put aside our contempt for Rahm if it achieves a “greater” good.

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Short-term ‘retirement’ post turns out to be a long-term one for Jesse White

It was a couple of decades ago when Jesse White ran for election as Illinois secretary of state.

WHITE: At age 84, is he up to sixth term?

The line of logic that existed amongst his political supporters is that White had been an 18-year member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Chicago’s Near West side who then returned home to Chicago for a term as Cook County’s recorder of deeds.

AT AGE 64, sending him back to Springfield for a term as secretary of state (replacing George Ryan, who gave up the post for his now-infamous stint as governor) was sort of a reward for White.

He could finish out his political career “on top,” so to speak. Before wandering off into a retirement from a life of community and public service, while occasionally reminiscing about “what might have been” if he had made it to the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs back in the 1960s.

Shows you how little we all knew back then.

For now, 20 years later, White is about to finish his fifth four-year term as the man who runs the state government office that – most prominently – puts his name on everybody’s driver’s license. Along with a whole slew of other services that makes the local secretary of state’s office the one Illinois residents most frequently deal with in their daily lives.

HELLAND: Out to make it a prime issue

NOW, COME NOV. 6, White will be the Democratic nominee seeking a sixth term, taking on Republican Jason Helland and Libertarian Steve Dutner. Both of whom are ridiculously young, compared to White.

Dutner is a 2002 college graduate, while Helland was in high school back when White was running the recorder of deeds office.

It almost brings to my mind the old Ronald Reagan debate wisecrack, the one where he said of presidential opponent Walter Mondale, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

 

REAGAN: Able to beat it down against Mondale

The point being that Reagan already was 73 years old, and wasn’t about to be intimidated out of running for office just because some people would prefer he retire to memories of his days as a B-grade movie actor.

JUST AS SOME people, including Republican Helland, are trying to make age an issue in this election cycle.

They’re claiming that electing White to a sixth term is really nothing more than putting control of picking the secretary of state into the powers-that-be of the Democratic party.

They’re claiming White has every intention of retiring shortly after his re-election – thereby giving the governor the ability to hand-pick a replacement – similar to how Rauner in 2014 picked an Illinois comptroller when Judy Baar Topinka died before she could be sworn into office.

An 'alternate life' version of White … 

Of course, Republicans want to believe that all Democrats are puppets of Michael Madigan, the Illinois House speaker and state Democratic chairman whom they’re trying to demonize.

OR COULD THIS be the admission by Republicans that Bruce Rauner’s re-election dreams are little more than delusions? Which means a “Gov. J.B. Pritzker” will go along with whomever Madigan desires for the post!

Even though the real admission is that Helland is a candidate with no chance of winning secretary of state, and is merely doing service to the GOP by allowing his name to fill the ballot slot.

… if there hadn't been an 'Ernie Banks?'

Because running the Grundy County state’s attorney and a former prosecutor in Kankakee County for the post comes across as falling way short of White’s political service dating back to 1975, and his work with kids, particularly leading the Jesse White Tumblers, that goes back even further.

About the only reason people might find a negative about White is his time as a professional athlete – playing first base for Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates back in the 1960s and futilely trying to beat out Ernie Banks for his major league job. Then again, I don’t think even Chicago White Sox fans would hold that against him.

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EXTRA: All-too-predictable, City Council gets new Latina member

Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a pick Friday to fill an aldermanic vacancy, and it seems that Hizzoner made about as safe an establishment pick as possible.

TABARES: Latest to move up to alderman

The new alderman of the 23^rd Ward on the city’s Southwest Side is Silvana Tabares, who for the past five years served as a state legislator – a member of the Illinois House of Representatives covering one of those city districts that spills over a tiny bit into the surrounding suburbs.

WHICH IS WHY most Chicago-types regard a move from the General Assembly to the City Council as a political promotion – they no longer have to concern themselves with suburban issues.

Plus, they no longer have to worry about maintaining a part-time residence in Springfield or making the trip to work at the Statehouse. Unlike most municipal official types who’d view a state Legislature as a promotion of sorts from the mundane local issues they deal with.

But Tabares’ promotion was predictable in other ways. She replaces Mike Zalewski, who resigned his post last month because of the changing demographics of the ward.

The one-time ethnic composition that looked favorably upon a Polish-American person as one of their own no longer does so. The ward has about two-thirds Latino population (heavily Mexican-American, to be exact).

Emanuel and Madigan strengthen their hold … 

IN THAT REGARD, Tabares will fit in much better, while also boosting the number of Latino aldermen to 12 (roughly one-quarter of the council’s composition). Something that will allow Emanuel to bolster his credentials amongst Latino voters – whom he’s hoping will be a significant part of the voter base that keeps him in office for a third term come the 2019 election cycle.

It even helps boost the chances of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, since Tabares is also the state central committeewoman from the 3^rd Congressional District – where she is the party counterpart to Madigan himself, who serves as the district’s committeeman. She's definitely not a "radical activist" type of politico.

… on power with their actions

Don’t be surprised if people start touting Tabares’ advancement to alderman as evidence that Madigan is of benefit to women and their political advancement.

What with all the Democratic officials who are providing tidbits of dirt that lean in the direction of sexual harassment, people will use everything they can to help cleanse up their image. While the political establishment manages to strengthen its hold on power in the process.

  -30-

How far are Ill. ideologues out-of-touch

It’s official. Toni Preckwinkle is now the Democratic chairman for Cook County; despite the fact that – not long ago – people were speculating she was “history” and a cancer on her political party.

PRECKWINKLE: New 'firsts' for her resume

How much you want to bet that come next week, Michael Madigan will remain in place as the Democratic chairman for all of Illinois?

IT’S VERY LIKELY that the people who go about clamoring for the demise of Madigan from positions of authority will find their hostile views rather irrelevant. About as much as those who wanted to believe that Preckwinkle was doomed because of the “pop tax.”

Remember that? The penny-per-ounce fee that was charged every time you bought a bottle of a sweetened drink (about $0.64 added to the price of a two-liter bottle of pop).

People were supposedly so offended by the charge (which used to add about 21 cents to the cost of whenever I picked up a can of Coca-Cola) that they were going to vote Preckwinkle out of her post as Cook County Board president.

Actually, it was the lobbyists for the carbonated beverage industry who were p.o.’ed about the tax, and it was their lobbying effort that ultimately swayed the county board to repeal the tax despite Preckwinkle’s continued support of the need for the revenues it generated.

MADIGAN: 3rd decade as Dem chair?

BUT THAT DIDN’T happen. Preckwinkle won her re-nomination in the March primary and doesn’t even have a Republican opponent come the Nov. 6 general election. She enhanced her political power on Wednesday when the Cook County committeemen convened and picked her the party chairman.

She’s now the first woman and first black person to ever hold the position and can now put her name in the same category as Richard J. Daley – who himself was the county Democratic chairman who used that position to make himself all-powerful.

Rather than just another “joe schmo” mayor.

Not that I expect Preckwinkle to become the next Daley who single-handedly picks the candidate who beats up on Donald J. Trump come the 2020 presidential election.

FIORETTI: Reduced to defending Harvey

BUT SHE’S NOWHERE near the level of political death that her partisan detractors wanted to believe. Although if she had faced a more credible opponent than Robert Fioretti in the Democratic primary, things might have been different.

Not that Fioretti hasn’t been in the news in recent days. He’s the attorney defending suburban Harvey – the community whose share of state revenues were being garnished by the Comptroller’s office for failing to make payments toward the pension benefits they’re supposed to provide to retired police officers and firefighters.

Not exactly a high-minded cause, to be sure.

Although at least Preckwinkle had a couple of challengers for the party chairman post. Which is much more than the opposition Madigan will face when the state central committee meets on Monday in Springfield.

ALL THE PEOPLE who privately rant and rage about Madigan being all-too-powerful don’t have the nerve to come forth and challenge him. He’s been state Democratic chairman for 20 years and is likely to continue that reign (along with being Illinois House speaker) for the time being.

RAUNER: Covering up own unpopularity?

Not even a token challenger, like Preckwinkle had for county board president in the primary earlier this year.

Republicans may want to believe the nonsense-talk that Gov. Bruce Rauner is going to spew for the next few months that Madigan is all-evil and everything that is wrong with electoral politics. But I’d have to say that we make a mistake if we presume that he speaks for the majority of Illinoisans – just the people who are so desperate for an Election Day victory that they’ll keep engaging in the same “Dump Madigan” rhetoric that hasn’t succeeded for the last few election cycles.

For the reality may well be that many of us have real lives to live and know better than to get wrapped up in partisan political trash talk.

  -30-

Does Tio Hardiman think everybody should drop out of governor’s primary?

Now we’re moving into the segment of the primary election cycle in which everybody starts talking stupid.

KENNEDY: Wants Pritzker out

Perhaps it’s the fact that the nearly year-long time period during which they’ve been campaigning is making them feel touched in the head. They’re spewing silliness.

HOW ELSE TO explain Chris Kennedy’s rant Thursday that he thinks J.B. Pritzker, whom various polls have shown to be the front-runner, of sorts, for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination should withdraw from the race.

To which Daniel Biss, the state senator from Evanston who’d like to think he can play politics with the big boys, says Kennedy has no business making such a demand. He thinks both Kennedy and Pritzker ought to step aside to allow him to have the gubernatorial nomination.

I found one anonymous commenter on the Internet who says that Pritzker missed the perfect chance to complete the circle by issuing a statement calling for Biss to back away.

Although my reaction is to wonder if Tio Hardiman, the gun control activist who has a primary interest in the level of urban violence we’re confronted with in society, thinks everybody ought to get out of the race so that he might have a chance to win.

HARDIMAN IS THE guy whom the same gubernatorial polls show with about 1 percent support. That is, on the occasions when they even bother acknowledging his existence on the political scene.

PRITZKER: Trying to stay above fray

I did think of making a joke about Robert Marshall being the candidate who wanted everybody else to clear a path to victory for himself. But even that thought was just a tad too ridiculous.

I suspect if Marshall were to become the Democratic nominee for governor, that would drive swarms of people over to an effort to create a third political party, something along the lines of the 1986 election cycle when Adlai Stevenson III had to run a third-party campaign to try to fulfill his gubernatorial dreams.

Because Marshall just ain’t a Democrat, no matter what papers he filed in order to run in the primary.

BISS: Wants Kennedy/Pritzker out

I TAKE SUCH a light-hearted view on this issue, because I don’t expect anybody would seriously consider dropping out of the race for the benefit of someone whom they’ve been bad-mouthing for several months now as being totally unfit to serve.

But the fact that anybody would spew such rhetoric in any way other than as a tacky joke meant to be heard only by their hard-core supporters means, to me, that the wear-and-tear of the election cycle is getting to them.

Not that I can’t sympathize. As a reporter-type person, I have covered the day-to-day grind of a political campaign. I’ve been watching this election cycle from a distance, but it is still tiring.

Personally, I can’t wait for Tuesday night to come and go, and the unofficial election results to become public. I’ll be grateful for a time when I don’t even have to contemplate Marshall’s existence, at least until his next token campaign for office in 2020.

HARDIMAN: Could he win if everybody dropped out?

AND FOR A time when two out of the three of Biss, Kennedy and Pritzker will become ancient history. I’m sure the candidates are awaiting a rest period once the primary cycle is complete.

So what should we think of Kennedy saying, “If (Pritzker) believed in public service and sacrifice, he would sacrifice his own political career in service to the Democratic Party of Illinois and, frankly, to the people of Illinois by dropping out of the race.”

Or Biss saying, “Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker are two sides of the same gold coin.”

If Kennedy and Pritzker are “gold coins,” does that make Biss a Lincoln-head penny of the sort that I have far too many of in my pants pocket’s spare change?

  -30-

Electoral gamesmanship: It’s not just a matter of voting for the best candidate

I once covered a mayoral election cycle in the suburbs where we didn’t learn until the day before Election Day that the challenger was definitely off the ballot and that the unpopular incumbent truly was running unopposed for re-election.

RAILA: Back on the ballot, for now!

I mention that because it’s still six days away from Election Day, meaning there’s still time for electoral antics to occur with regards to the election being held for Cook County Assessor.

THAT’S THE ONE where incumbent Joe Berrios, most definitely an old-school politico of the Cook County mold, is trying to retain his post. But we don’t know exactly who he faces for opposition in Tuesday’s primary election.

Two people filed nominating petitions to get on the Democratic ballot to challenge him, and the one who has managed to get himself some airtime and political advertising is Fritz Kaegi – who’s been portraying himself as an honest guy businessman who wants to undo the ways of the political hack Berrios.

If it were a one-on-one political campaign, he might very well get enough voter support from all the people who are determined to view Berrios as venal in order to win the primary; which amounts to winning the election, since the Cook County Republican slate of candidates is weak and not likely to put up much of a challenge come the Nov. 6 general election.

But then, there’s Andrea Raila. She’s a tax appeal consultant. She has her own firm. She’s billing herself as one of the few women seeking a significant government post.

BERRIOS: Does Raila boost his chances of victory?

WHICH MEANS FOR those people who think Kaegi is too much of a political amateur to hold a countywide office but don’t want to vote for Berrios, there’s an alternative choice.

Yet Raila has been fighting for the right to even have her name on the ballot. Kaegi supporters say her nominating petitions were flawed and she didn’t qualify to even be a selection. Last month, she was removed from the ballot by a Cook County judge, who admitted ballots already had been printed with her name on them.

Which resulted in the situation I, and other Early Voting Center users, faced last week – I was handed a slip of paper before picking a touch-screen to vote with; informing me that if I voted for Andrea, I’d be spoiling my ballot.

It wouldn’t count.

KAEGI: A nobody after March 21, or a victor?

THAT IS, UNTIL Wednesday. When an Illinois appellate court overruled the circuit court. She’s back on the ballot, and anybody who cast votes for her instead of Berrios or Kaegi will now know that their votes will count, after all.

That is, unless another layer of courts manages to issue a ruling overturning the appeals court. This could get rushed through to the Supreme Court of Illinois. We may not know until Election Day whether Raila is a legitimate option for the post of Cook County assessor.

A post that usually doesn’t get much attention, but got actor Dan Ackroyd to recall his Elwood Blues character and take pot-shots at Berrios (while also endorsing Chris Kennedy for governor) in an Internet-only campaign ad. Now, it’s the focus of political chaos.

For what it’s worth, Raila has had to focus so much of her attention and money to a legal fight just to get her name on the ballot, it’s not likely she could actually win the primary.

SOME ARE CONVINCED she is a political front, of sorts, to steal votes away from a Kaegi campaign – thereby bolstering the chances that Berrios wins re-election.

Could she have been a credible candidate – the first Democratic woman to run for the post since the office was created in 1932 (that’s her self-important claim)? Perhaps. She might have been worth considering for a vote, since I’m not impressed with the Kaegi credentials. A political amateur, is what I fear.

Which means I was in line with many other Democratic Party establishment-types who wound up casting my ballot for Berrios. More of the same.

It would have been intriguing to consider a candidate like Raila; who turns to the late pundit Studs Terkel in saying, “You should be prime minister of taxes.”

  -30-

There’s a perfectly-good reason they call this time of year the ‘silly season’

We’re one month away from Election Day, as in when we the electorate declare our partisan intentions and decide whom each of the political parties will have on the ballot come the Nov. 6 general elections.

BISS: The $56 man?

Which means we’re already enduring more than our share of stupidity in the name of politics – and we’re going to get 30 more days between now and the primaries.

YOU COULD CUT short the amount of time you have to care about such nonsense if you decide to cast your ballot at an early voting center. March 5 is the day people can start showing up to express themselves early.

Yet we’re enduring all kinds of stunts.

Such as the one by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss – who officially pulled out his checkbook and wrote out a $56 check to his own campaign.

It was supposed to be a mocking of the $7 million more than overly-wealthy opponent J.B. Pritzker gave to himself – bringing his total campaign fund to $56.7 million.

BISS, IN A video snippet he posted on Facebook, said he can’t come close to matching that amount of money. So instead, he coughed up $56 – while asking individuals to also donate $56, in hopes that the overall total will add up to something significant.

PRITZKER: Biss tries to mock his millions

While also trying to make a deeper point that Biss, a one-time mathematics teacher turned state senator from Evanston, is closer to being like everyday people than Pritzker.

Or even the other Democratic challenger, Chris Kennedy, whom Biss claims has given some $1.2 million of his own money to his gubernatorial campaign. Which means that no matter who wins a month from now, there is going to be a lot of self-money wasted on political fantasy.

While also showing that Biss’ own level of support is limited to the point where one could argue a vote cast for him is a vote wasted.

THE ONE THING I do know is that I probably shouldn’t go wearing a “Biss” campaign button on the day I show up at a polling place. I usually don’t give much thought to what I wear for that occasion – other than that I’ll get that sticker reading “I Voted!” to paste on myself that day.

Campaigning by intimidation?

It seems, however, that the Supreme Court of the United States is going to give thought to this issue. A week from Wednesday, the nation’s high court will hear arguments in a case out of Minnesota – where Tea Party-type activists are challenging state laws that required them to cover up the party t-shirts they wanted to wear while voting.

It may be subtle, but I don’t doubt it is intimidation in its own form. Just as I suspect every jackass who insists on wearing one of those ridiculous “Make America Great Again” caps is looking to provoke a reaction from everybody who doesn’t agree with them.

Although it’s not as blunt as a few years ago, when on Election Day, a polling place worker insisted on saying “Don’t Vote for the Son” as he guided us to empty ballot machines – remember Todd Stroger (the son of John) running for Cook County Board president re-election in 2010?

I ALSO GOT my chuckle from a campaign mailing I received from Patricia Joan Murphy – who’s running for the Cook County Board seat her late mother (Joan Patricia Murphy) held for many years.

Thorough instructions

The mailing included postcards I could send in to the county clerk’s office so that I can cast my ballot by mail. I don’t even have to show up at a polling place.

The card is actually an application to Cook County to send me a ballot to fill out at home. And for what it’s worth, Murphy’s postcards are already marked in a way to ensure I’m sent a Democratic Party primary ballot. How thoughtful (heavy sarcasm intended) of her.

It’s almost enough to make me want to pick a Republican ballot. But then I’d have to be confronted with the thought of the worst of evils between Gov. Bruce Rauner and challenger Jeanne Ives. Too nauseating to contemplate.

  -30-

Just what does a losing political candidate really owe to his victor?

So what should we make of Bernie Sanders, now that it is apparent that the senator from Vermont is NOT about to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee?

SANDERS: Won't wither away

He’s the man who the other day talked of the need for people to unite to ensure that the overly-vocal minority of Donald Trump backers aren’t sufficient to actually win the November presidential elections, even though an acknowledgment that he LOST the primary cycle to Hillary Clinton never actually came from his mouth.

AS REPORTED IN so many places, Sanders talked about his role in determining just what the Democratic candidates will stand for. He talked about his expectations.

Even though one could argue that as the loser, his expectations ought to be that he can slink away into anonymity and won’t face any sort of political reprisals for having the nerve to challenge Hillary – who after all was the pick of Democratic Party establishment officials.

But that just wouldn’t be Bernie’s style. He’s the grouchy old guy (actually older than Hillary – whom some Bernie backers like to think of as some old lady who’s past her prime).

So he’s going to be the one who goes about screaming and screeching what he thinks the party ought to stand for.

BUT WHAT EXACTLY will that amount to?

I could easily envision a scenario in which Sanders is put in charge of some sort of committee that helps craft the official Democratic Party platform statement that sets forth in writing a whole bunch of stances on selected issues that real Democrats are supposed to believe.

Which is about as worthless a task as one could be asked to perform. Because the platform is a document that usually does not acknowledge the wide range of stances that exist on issues. It is something that candidates choose to ignore whenever it suits them.

I can’t see Sanders being content to prepare a document that will be ignored.

BUT WOULD HILLARY Clinton dare let Sanders have any more say within the political party mechanizations? I doubt it!

She’s going to dream of what is the ideal type of political loser – someone who quietly fades away into the woodwork without continuing to try to stir up dissention. She doesn’t need Sanders to become her most outspoken advocate.

But she certainly would want for him to put a gag on himself and not say much of anything. Which is certainly not the style of the man who rose from political obscurity to national prominence to the point where some people are seriously disappointed that he did not prevail in the now-complete Democratic primary elections.

The problem is that if Hillary gave Bernie too prominent a post, he would wind up detracting from her own campaign. You’d wind up having many of those Bernie backers going into the general election campaign cycle convinced the wrong person won.

PERSONALLY, I EXPECT many of those people who felt “the Bern” and were inspired by his oft-vague rhetoric are just not going to bother to cast ballots. There may well be a sense of disappointment that drives down voter turnout.

But this truly is the year of “Who do I hate the least?” being the chief sentiment that guides people if they bother to show up at the polling place later this year.

There are Republican ideologues who have it so ingrained in their blood that a Clinton is a being to be destroyed politically that they won’t be able to conceive of voting for her. While a majority of sane people will wonder what those ideologues were thinking during their primary cycles this year that they could nominate Trump.

Right now, Sanders is meekly claiming to offer support to defeating Donald. It will be interesting to see how he winds up trying to talk himself up in the process.

  -30-

Conspiring to take down “The Donald.” Can GOP pull it off in next 100 days?

TRUMP: A conspiracy to deny the nomination

This truly is an election cycle that makes no sense.

The oft-cited difference between the two major political parties in this country is that the Republicans know how to strong-arm their members to get things done, whereas Democrats often let their differences split them up into factions that keep them from uniting.

SO WHEN IN 2016 we have situations where each presidential primary has a candidate determined to gain themselves the nomination at the expense of the political party establishment, you’d think we’d have radically different results.

But this year, it seems that the Democrats are the ones who are capable of keeping some semblance of order to making their presidential pick – Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont may have a faction of supporters who say they’d NEVER cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton.

But the Democratic establishment is such that Hillary has a significant lead in achieving the delegate count she needs to gain the party nomination when they all convene in Philadelphia later this year.

The Sanders people, many of whom are younger folks who don’t quite comprehend the ways of electoral politics, will whine and scream all they want. But it doesn’t seem likely they’ll prevail.

WHICH NORMALLY IS what we’d expect from the Republican side of the aisle. But it certainly isn’t happening here.

Because it’s pretty clear that the last thing the Republican political establishment wants is the notion of Donald Trump as their presidential nominee. The man is a political and personal buffoon with the potential to scare enough voters into the arms of Hillary Clinton to make up for the youthful radical types who claim there’s no way they’d ever vote for her.

CRUZ: More 'rational' Republican choice?

But the garish New York real estate developer is well on his way to gaining the delegate count that would make his nomination at the Republican Convention in Cleveland a mere formality.

Which is why I found the New York Times to be amusing with their weekend report about how the GOP top dogs are plotting amongst themselves to figure out ways that Trump can be denied the presidential nomination.

PERSONALLY, I FIND it even more scary that the Republican idea of a better alternative to Trump is that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gets the nomination. He’s got his own ideologue streak and would be likely inflict some serious harm on our society,

CLINTON: More rational choice for real people

As opposed to Trump, who really isn’t an ideologically-oriented kind of guy! He’s just an over-bloated ego, and one who never really took the time to study the society around him.

Because, after all, it’s all about himself! The rest of us just need to adapt ourselves to his way of thinking – is about the way he sees things.

As reported by the Times, it’s going to be a 100-day strategy beginning with the Wisconsin primary next month, and running into the summer. Turn the other presidential hopefuls into the credible candidates who will start winning primaries and caucuses.

SO THAT BY the time that process is done in mid-June, nobody has enough delegates to make the GOP convention an over-glorified pep rally in their honor. Then, it becomes a matter of twisting and turning enough arms of delegates until someone else, anybody else, gets the presidential nomination.

There’s talk of bringing in people not currently in the running (or perhaps resurrecting someone like former Texas Gov. Rick Perry who dropped out of contention months ago). Some pretty serious conspiring just to overcome the fact that the Republican Party has been too weak to kill off a political amateur like Trump months ago.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree with Trump on one point – that if he now were to fail after all the support he has gained, it would be perceived by his supporters as a plot and they’d figure out some way to revolt. He’s right.

If the Republican Party were truly capable of denying Trump the presidential nomination, they’d have figured out a way of carrying out such action months ago.

IT MAY BE too late to do much to stop the idea of Trump from being a factor, particularly since his followers are definitely the type of people who won’t be bothered to vote if their beloved nit-wit doesn’t make the final ballot.

STEVENSON: Let nation experience '86 Ill. chaos!

There’s even some speculation that Republican establishment types may put together a third political party or back an independent presidential choice. We ought to ask Adlai Stevenson III how that works – remember his own “Solidarity Party” Illinois gubernatorial bid of 1986 when Lyndon LaRouche followers hijacked his Democratic Party nomination by choosing waspy-sounding running mates over Democratic establishment types like “Sangmeister” and “Pucinski?”

Then again, there’s also the similarity between that election cycle and Trump – in that there is evidence that some Trump delegates failed to get chosen because their names sounded “too foreign” to the majority of those who like the idea of an amateur like Trump living and working in the White House.

And it may well be the Democratic operatives who get the biggest laugh of this situation, since it’s usually themselves who suffer from such chaos and inability to get things done.

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EXTRA: Bill Daley – maybe he’s not candidate material, he’s just staff!!

Thinking about William Daley’s dropping out of the Illinois gubernatorial campaign, I can’t fully buy into the reasoning he offered up.

DALEY: An electoral never-was!?!

He says that he never fully appreciated the difference between helping to run a campaign – and actually being the guy whose name was atop the ballot come Election Day.

YET THIS WAS also the guy who was one of the big-wigs of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid (and who some say was the force that dissuaded him from conceding defeat to George W. Bush on Election Night, instead getting him to go through a month-long legal appeal process that is the ONLY reason that election cycle was memorable).

Daley on Tuesday made a point of telling reporter-type people that was not afraid of losing to a man whom he then went out of his way to trash as beatable.

It seems as though Daley is accepting of the concept of a Republican candidate winning the 2014 election cycle for governor – and might actually encourage it.

Which makes me wonder if the ultimate Daley “punishment” would be for a Pat Quinn victory next November. I believe it is possible, because I believe this is not only an election cycle for the Republican candidate to lose, their candidates are more than capable of losing it big time.

AS FOR DALEY, it was interesting to learn that he says he will NEVER run for elective office in his life. We’ll see if he keeps that promise. He may have a change of heart in 2018.

Then again, Daley has always been the guy who talks about running for office, but then finding a reason to back away. This time, he just managed to hold off on dropping out awhile longer.

Maybe next time, he’ll make it to a primary election. Unless he really is true to his word that he’s just the kind of guy who takes appointed positions.

Although if you really look at his record, it isn’t that stellar.

HE’S THE GUY who, as Commerce secretary, is most remembered for fainting on the day that his nomination for the post was announced. As far as being White House chief of staff?

Let’s be honest. He’s going to be the “other” chief of staff President Barack Obama picked from Chicago. Even if you don’t want to buy into the stories emanating from Washington, D.C. about his ineptitude in the post, Rahm Emanuel’s stint as the boss over Obama’s staff will be the one people remember.

I suppose I shouldn’t knock down Daley too much. Perhaps he is just realizing that his role is to be the guy who supports the elected officials who have to take the blame for everything that goes wrong.

Daley – who made a point Tuesday of trashing Quinn for issues such as pension funding reform, Metra and Statehouse renovations – doesn’t seem to want to get blame for those issues, and many more if he were to get himself elected.

SO MAYBE IT’S better off that he’s out of the running for 2014. Nobody will get their hopes worked up by the thought of a “Daley” in the Executive Mansion.

It actually has me thinking that we ought to start thinking of William Daley as “Willie the Wimp!”

Except that I’m sure the real “Wimp” (the son of black gangster Willie "Fluky" Stokes) would come crawling out of his grave (with the Cadillac-motif coffin, remember the song sung by Stevie Ray Vaughan?) and take great offense as to anyone comparing him in any way to someone like Daley – who seems to want a political world where he gets anointed to be governor.

Rather than one where he was in great danger of having the Democratic Party of Illinois (along with the Cook County Democratic Party and the Democratic County Chairman’s Association) all decide that no matter how little they think of Pat Quinn, they find him preferable to the “other” Daley brother.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I can’t say I’m surprised by William Daley’s actions. I was more shocked when Lisa Madigan decided that 2014 wasn’t “her year” to seek the top post in Illinois government.