3 take-aways from a wild election
As Donald Trump claims the presidency and the familiar political landscape shifts, here are three take-aways from a chaotic election.
'Never underestimate Trump'
Brash billionaire Trump, who clinched the needed Electoral College votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton, should never have been underestimated, says former gubernatorial candidate Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, who wasn't on the Trump bandwagon.
His fellow Republican "closed very hard in the last week. He became more presidential."
What's the Trump appeal? For some it was the fact he wasn't Clinton.
"I'm probably voting anti-Hillary rather than for him," said Republican Bob Cavallo, who voting on Election Day at an Addison polling place.
Tom Schwagart, another Addison Republican, explained: "I voted for Trump because I'm tired of all that's been going on. I just think politicians haven't done anything. Let a businessman try it."
Polls don't matter
Hanging out at polling places on Election Day, one trend emerged. Quite a few people were coy about who got their vote for president.
Could they be the same voters who misled the pollsters into predicting a clear pathway to victory for Clinton?
DuPage County Republican Party Chairman Brian Krajewski thinks some Trump supporters "didn't want to tell the pollsters how they really were going to vote. Either they said they were undecided or they were going to vote for Hillary. And, when they got into the booth, they voted for who they really wanted."
Take off for the great white north
Will scores of Democrats really leave the country for Canada? Here's some advice from Republicans interviewed back when it looked like Trump had a lost cause.
"I always find that amusing when people say if their candidate loses, they'll leave the country," Trump organizer Mark Fratella of Elmhurst said. "We'll live to fight another battle."