Actually, the people I've known from Ohio might even dispute whether Chicago is in the midwest! They'd call it "Great Lakes" or "Upper Plains" or something like that.

I have always wished AA had a more western hub. I can usually get east easily enough through ORD but now Star Alliance has AA beat every way possible on options going west. That said, I don't expect them to decrease focus on ORD - none of the other hub exits have been as radical as this. BNA, RDU, STL...none of those were ever on the same level as ORD. (STL wasn't really even their idea...it was a holdover from the TW acquisition.)

The ORD-DEL cancellation had to do with the economics of service to India, not Chicago.