Listen to straight talk from Illinois voters

There was a time when candidates used to ball up a fist and knock on doors to sell themselves. Now they hold out their hands for millions in campaign cash for commercials.

But if the presidential candidates who will soon come to Illinois care to walk up our stoops and greet us at our doorways, they'd hear a lot about life here.

Sen. Barack Obama might hear proud fellow citizens of Illinois giving him hearty congratulations for his victory in the Democratic Party presidential race in Iowa. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will get some applause for his first place finish. Supporters of Illinois native Hillary Clinton will encourage her on.

But mostly what they will hear is straight talk.

Our front rooms are the real world, where problems can't be diminished or distorted by message spinners.

They will hear much of the same they heard in Iowa and other states. It's a struggle to afford health care. College costs are draining bank accounts and increasing debt. Jobs are in trouble, or they don't pay what they used to. There is fear of foreclosure.

Injured and ill veterans here and throughout the state will want to know what the candidates intend to do about the fact that they have been receiving the lowest average disability compensation in the country.

The millions of us who use O'Hare International Airport might be curious about their ideas on improving air traffic management that has resulted in some planes flying dangerously close to each other.

And what are their thoughts on O'Hare expansion, or whatever else they have in mind to ease the congestion in the skies? Will they push for completion of western access to O'Hare, to ease congestion on the highways motorists use to get to and from O'Hare?

What do they think about Illinois continuing to be a donor state, in which taxpayers are sending far more money to Washington than they get back in federal spending?

Research and development is a key commercial enterprise in the suburbs. Yet Fermilab in Batavia is facing deep funding cuts and could lay off 200 workers. Argonne National Laboratory officials in DuPage County announced last week that they also are facing cuts and potential layoffs. What do the candidates for president think about that?

Certainly many of these issues are of such a parochial nature that they are best addressed by local representatives in Congress.

But a president is a representative of all the states. He or she should know of these issues in working with members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in deciding what shall be priorities in fashioning a federal budget.

Iowa was the first state to make a statement on who should be the next president. But it is hardly the final word. Illinois voters will have their say -- based on what the presidential candidates have said to them.