EXTRA: Clinton over Sanders, or so says Tribune’s sister newspaper

I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the editorial endorsement offered up by the Los Angeles Times – a.k.a., the sister newspaper to the Chicago Tribune that often thinks it gets snubbed by its corporate relative.

For the Times, in anticipation of Tuesday’s primary in California, told voters to pick Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. They say she is just so far better qualified – a former secretary of state, compared to a fringe senator who has never been a real part of the Democratic party.

IT REMINDS ME of the endorsements that the Chicago Tribune made in the days leading up to the Illinois primary back in March. Remember?

The Tribune gave its pick to Marco Rubio, claiming that Donald Trump was just so unfit for the presidency. While it said that none of the Democrats were worthy of consideration – as though a ballot cast in that primary would be a waste of time.

We all remember how the voters here reacted.

Trump solidly took the Illinois Republican primary, while Clinton edged out a victory over Sanders on the Democratic side. And more Illinois voters picked a Democratic ballot rather than a Republican one.

So much for the one-time World’s Greatest Newspaper asserting influence over local readers!

WILL THE LOS Angeles Times’ viewpoint have just as little influence over its readers as the Tribune did over our local ones?

Personally, I think the editorial stances taken by newspapers are more useful for helping readers judge any potential leanings or biases that could wind up being reflected in news coverage – rather than in terms of guiding people when they set foot in polling places.

Newspapers may dream of people taking their pages into the voting booth to guide them in voting for all those lower offices – particularly for judges. But that’s not likely.

If anything, I wonder if it is more likely that the Times’ endorsement is Tribune Publishing’s attempt (I refuse to use the tronc, Inc., label) to try to look a little less weak and ineffectual amongst its Democratic Party readers because of a lack of a stance here in Chicago. Even though I’m sure editorial board members at the Trib Tower will deny it to their death.

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Presidential candidate packs looking ridiculously nondescript these days

I have to make a confession – I am a political writer who finds the upcoming election cycle for U.S. president to have the potential to be an absolute dud.

The upcoming presidential candidate field ...

Much has been made of the fact that the Republican field of presidential dreamers is overloaded with a pack of guys (and one woman, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina) who have strong enough flaws that a blowhard like Donald Trump actually has the lead in various polls.

THEN AGAIN, WHEN there are 17 candidates who have expressed interest, it doesn’t take much support to have the lead. It could easily turn out that the bulk of GOP voters turn against Trump – who may already have all the support he’s going to get.

But I don’t exactly think that Democrats have any wrap on the general election coming up in just under 15 months.

It may well be that one-time first lady and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton gets the party’s nomination, only to have all the past negativity that existed toward the Clinton name (both her and former president Bill) come back to whack her.

Take her down and make it possible for a flawed Republican to win the general election.

I HONESTLY BELIEVE that Trump and his over-bloated ego are intense enough that he’s going to be an Election Day factor. I see him more as the independent campaign because he won’t want no stinkin’ political party telling him what he ought to do!

My bottom line is that I don’t have a clue as to who could win. Clinton for the Dems, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the GOP and Trump as the “none of the above” kind of candidate?

... has all the potential to be something  ...

It could happen. But who’s to say?

To me, the biggest question is the Democratic field. I find it intriguing that the two challengers with the strongest chance of beating Hillary are a pair of guys who aren’t even amongst the unofficial five candidates currently seeking the post.

IT IS ODD that the sitting Vice President isn’t among the five. Although I’m not sure Joe Biden is that strong a candidate. He ought to feel fortunate that the scandals of a couple of decades ago that damaged his political reputation seem to have been erased by him being Barack Obama’s “number two” guy.

And as for former Vice President Al Gore? He had his chance 15 years ago. Which is why I’m glad he’s not actively seeking the post.

Yet those two are bigger names and would draw stronger support than the other four Dems wishing to take on Clinton.

... only political geeks care about

I find the thought of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who campaigned in Chicago Monday night, to be intriguing – in the same way that Paul Tsongas (the former Massachusetts senator) was a curious sight for about five minutes before he faded away into obscurity.

AS FOR THE other Democrats – former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffee – they may not be as strong as Sanders.

All of those “formers” included in their political descriptions make them sound like a batch of guys running for president because they have nothing better to do now. They need a job, and a place to live – both of which come along with the “presidential” title.

OBAMA: Not appreciated now

The only thing that may be as weak as the Republican candidate field is the Democratic one – maybe not as buffoonish, but still not the best of choices.

Which could well be the factual basis behind President Obama’s off-the-cuff comment from last month that he could “win a third term if I ran again.” More a sad commentary on the weak crop of candidates we have now; or evidence that we won’t appreciate Obama’s presidency until it is over and done with.

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Hillary for President! – Hasn’t she been running for the White House all along?

Well, excuse me (think Steve Martin in his mid-1970s white suit-wearing, arrow-through-the-head persona) for not getting all excited that Hillary R. Clinton is finally going to declare herself a presidential candidate for the 2016 election cycle.

My honest reaction to learning that the former Arkansas and U.S. first lady/senator/Secretary of State is beginning her presidential campaign on Sunday was to have a thought along the lines of “It’s about (insert obscenity of your choice here) time!?!”

IT’S JUST THAT the talk of Hillary Clinton running for president once Barack Obama leaves office has been going on for so long that it really doesn’t seem like news.

The fact that she plans to use Facebook to issue a canned statement, along with releasing some sort of video of herself talking, just doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Particularly since making her campaign declaration in such a way may sound “cool” and “neato” (and whatever other choice phrases mean anything to the computer geek-oriented crowd) to some, it seems to me and I’m sure many other politically oriented people as a way of hiding from them. Or maybe I’m just trained to take Twitter comments and ignore them as the ramblings of the vapid?

It’s hard to interact with a video snippet on a computer screen featuring Hillary telling us how much she wants to be president – a fact we all came to the realization of some many decades ago.

THE WASHINGTON POST is reporting that Hillary plans to follow up this Sunday campaign statement (I can already hear the overly-religious amongst us complaining that she’s somehow defiling the “Lord’s special day”) by meeting with small groups across Iowa.

The newspaper also reported Friday that Hillary is hiring political operatives to be based in New Hampshire.

In short, she’s already focusing on the two states that historically kick off the whole campaign cycle. She wants that early jolt that, for all intents and purposes, kills off any other person who has the nerve to think they can take the Democratic Party presidential nomination away from her. Does anyone seriously get excited at the concept of, “President Joe Biden?”

Remember back late 2007 when Obama was a presidential hopeful whom nobody knew if he should be taken seriously at all? He won those caucuses in Iowa and didn’t embarrass himself in New Hampshire.

WHICH HAD THE effect of ruining the sense of invincibility that Hillary had hoped to develop for herself. She wound up getting dragged into a lengthy primary battle that didn’t come to an end until the very end – and Obama wound up with the nomination and, ultimately, two terms of the presidency.

Clinton had to settle for the consolation prize of a cabinet post – albeit one of the most powerful cabinet posts in the federal government.

And one that literally did much to rehabilitate her public image that was way too influenced by the distaste some people felt (and likely still feel) by her husband, Bill.

Be honest. If Hillary were to become president and Bill winds up being the first male presidential spouse, you know it won’t be long before people make jokes along the lines of, “Hide the girls! Bill’s back in the White House.”

BUT THAT’S A gag for early 2017 – for now, we get to speculate about how Hillary’s unofficial campaigning has gone on for so long that the public at-large is already sick and tired of her.

Anything she has to say on Sunday is going to be glossed over – or overly-speculated upon by those people eager to distort it into a negative blow to her image!

In fact, the big reason I can’t get all worked up over the upcoming Democratic primary election cycle is that I can’t envision anybody else running a credible campaign. It all seems like a preordained cycle to see how well prepared Hillary is to run against the clowns like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul who want to drag the image of the “Party of Lincoln” further into the ground.

Perhaps we could get Martin himself to consider a presidential bid – not the Martin who sang to us “King Tut.” But perhaps the one-time “Wild and Crazy Guy” who turned a folded paper video into a Senate endorsement for Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.

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