Republicans who don't like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have foolishly blinded themselves to her great talent for diplomacy.

She'd go on a foreign trip, perhaps give a small gift as a token of the Obama administration's esteem. And later, as if by magic, some Third World tough guy would write a big, fat check with lots of zeros to a foundation run by her husband, Bill.

That's diplomacy the Chicago Way.

And because the top three Republican presidential candidates have recently done her a great service — sucking up all the media oxygen while her problematic issues remain under the radar — here's the least she can do:

Drive out to the mall and pick up a few thank you tokens for keeping the media spotlight off her back.

Perhaps she can grab one of those Diamond & Silk T-shirts (men's small) for Marco Rubio. I hear they were trending over the weekend. And then she might stop at Crabtree & Evelyn for face-blotting pads for Marco, to help him with the heartbreak of his nervous debate sweats.

While there, she might also choose something fun for Donald Trump, such as "Moroccan Myrrh" hair and body wash.

And almost every mall has a food shop, so a platter of various Canadian cheeses and a sack of authentic Canadian cheese curds would let Ted Cruz get a big whiff of his birthplace.

Before you say something stupid such as "what difference, at this point, does it make?" please let me explain.

The Republican presidential catfight took media attention away from Hillary just when she needed it, as she rolled toward Super Tuesday. And that should (pants) suit her just fine.

With Marco, Ted and Donald shouting about who's the loser and who's the liar and who melts and sweats like some frightened Hobbit, Clinton was able to sidestep three developments on some of her key vulnerabilities:

•A federal judge in Washington ruled that officials of the State Department and Clinton's top aides could be questioned under oath as to whether they broke federal open-records laws by participating in the use of a private email server at her home when she was U.S. secretary of state.

Yeah, that email scandal, the one Clinton brushed off as one of those right-wing conspiracies until the FBI began investigating and editorial boards began editorializing.

Under Judge Emmet G. Sullivan's ruling, Clinton's close aide Huma Abedin may be questioned under oath about how top-secret and classified government emails were put on Mrs. Clinton's private server.

Clinton said she used the private emails for "convenience." But the issue is that she put classified information on the server in her basement, where it could be hacked by Russian, Chinese and other foreign intelligence agencies.

And keeping tens of thousands of government emails on her private server also shielded other information, such as correspondence about her family's Clinton Foundation from legitimate government oversight.

And all that is why Vice President Joe Biden is still waiting to see whether he'll be called in to pinch-hit for the Democrats if she stubs her toes on the Justice Department.

So if you were Hillary, wouldn't you rather have the nation mesmerized by Republicans shrieking at each other than thinking about the emails? Of course you would.

•Clinton's firewall and her capitulation to Black Lives Matter.

I first read about this in a fine piece in The National Interest by Marjorie Romeyn-Sanabria, and it should have received wider notice.

At a fundraiser in South Carolina last week, Mrs. Clinton was confronted by Black Lives Matters activist Ashley Williams.

Williams shouted that Clinton should apologize to African-Americans for a speech she gave some two decades ago, in which she equated some black teenagers to "super-predators."

In a quote from the speech, which Williams had printed on a sign that she waved at the fundraiser, Mrs. Clinton said, "We have to bring the (super-predators) to heel."

The two had an angry exchange at the fundraiser in Columbia before Williams was removed from the premises.

The next day, Clinton issued a rather lame apology in The Washington Post, saying, "Looking back, I shouldn't have used those words, and I wouldn't use them today."

There are still super-predators out there of all races, but Clinton's politics have changed. These days she needs a firewall of black voters to protect her from Bernie Sanders.

In 2008, when she campaigned for the party nomination against then Sen. Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton was vilified by black leaders over alleged racial insensitivity. Now, many of those same black politicians protect her.

What's changed? Nothing. It's all about the goodies she'll shower upon those politicians if she wins. But she must keep that firewall intact.

•Superdelegates.

More than a month ago, libertarian Paul Jacob, writing on TownHall.com, examined how Democratic powerbrokers had rigged the game with superdelegates.

It's too bad that those young millennials feeling the Bern don't read TownHall.com.

Unelected superdelegates — party insiders, hacks, donors — make up about 15 percent of the total delegates needed for the presidential nomination. And more than 95 percent of these have already pledged to Hillary.

So even if their state primaries are won by Bernie Sanders, Hillary has those superdelegates in her pocket.

And those idealistic young voters flocking to Sanders must just now realize that for all the talk about hopes and dreams, the Democratic Party has shielded itself against democracy.

And so Hillary walks to the nomination, and awaits the Clinton Restoration.

Listen to John Kass on "The Chicago Way" podcast here: www.wgnplus.com/category/thechicagoway.

jskass@tribpub.com

Twitter @John_Kass