It's easy not to be upbeat about this election. There are some who say it's downright hard. But we all have to find a way to cope. The timing of this year’s World Series was perfect. The Chicago Cubs vs. the Cleveland Indians brought me back to my midwestern roots even though I was sitting blocks away from Pennsylvania Avenue. I’m a former Chicago area kid and former White Sox fan, but I watched the last game of the World Series cheering for the Cubs. It was an incredibly exciting game - and admittedly it felt really good to be excited and distracted from all political. As I checked in on Twitter during the game to give a shoutout to my hometown team, I realized I wasn't the only one looking for “the pause that refreshes. It was amazing to see all the politicos cheering for baseball, and not candidates. A true momentary relief. 

My initial World Series tweet was posted with a comment about my growing up days, adding "tnite my heart is with those #Cubs! So proud." The first person to ‘Like’ that tweet was Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (someone I don't know personally). Right after that, another columnist was asked via tweet if there were any new polls. The answer was perfect. "Rasmussen has the Indians up by 3." Rasmussen is a respected political polling organization who doesn't take sporting bets. Then someone else chimed in, "Most Americans want neither of these teams to lose." It got to the point where I just had to laugh at it all, and decided to ask, "Politics vs. baseball. What's the best game?" Hmmm.  

And that's what it came down to as the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, and the 2016 Presidential Campaign moved to its final days. Who’s on first became history.

It's a bizarrely uneven matchup of the two main candidates on the ballot. In one corner we have Donald Trump who, it could be said, is on the FBI protected list. Nobody is hacking his corporate or political staff emails. Lawsuits against him abound. No Trump tax returns have surfaced to find that elusive factual documentation of anything. And he maintains an abysmal record when dealing with women and minorities. Donald Trump's baggage is unique to a man with no political history, but a lot of questionable business history.

There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton has baggage. The political world has been her fishbowl for more than thirty years. She's had her successes and her failures. Yet the amount of almost too well orchestrated dumping and piling on her right now is bad. Between WikiLeaks hacking into the Democratic National Committee files, then into Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, and a FBI Director who seems prone to favoring political winds that blow from Republican ranks, It's rather miraculous that she's still walking and talking and flying all over the country. Imagine if all this hacking and dumping had taken place against Donald Trump.

Don’t underestimate the power of each individual vote on November 8th.

Join me @MarilynSalenger live on Twitter election night November 8, 2016.