Redstate

The problem with Obama's rise is not that he has done anything to repudiate or clean up that corrupt city's politics... but that he has most likely benefited from that same corruption. Not only has he failed to go against it, but his rise from nothing, to speaking at the Dems' '04 convention and subsequent election as US Senator, is directly attributable to being involved in that cities' politics.

And while talking about Obama benefiting from Chicago politics... what the hell is a 'community organizer' and why should they be paid $300,000? Because right now, when I hear 'community organizer' I imagine that painting of Lenin standing forth an enthralled 'community'.

"The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder."

--Richard J. Daley (Father to Billy and Richard M.), at the Democratic Convention of 1968

There's nothing corrupt about Chicago ... The Machine selects politicians and they make sure that pot holes get filled, garbage cans get replaced, and the snow gets removed from the streets ... if a few city contracts go to specific bidders at strangely high prices, so be it.

Obama won't clean up Chicago, Teddy won't clean up Boston, and neither Bloomberg nor Giuliani will clean up New York. Politically, anyway ... Chicago streets are cleaner than New York's or Boston's.

Chicago got JFK elected ... got Bill Clinton elected (and he reneged on his promises) ... and is now supporting Obama. 'Bout time The Machine took some action. Obama may lose The General, but if he wins, he'll at least stay bought.

Give it a few years. Richard M.'s son is serving in the Army today, and he'll be a candidate some day.

Honest graft- i.e. the cop that prides himself on not taking money from a prostitute, or the alderman who only takes kickbacks on socially desirable projects, like a contract to build a library.

A new, cleaner day is at hand!

the Penn primary...I was talking with clients (in Penn) who were actually going to listen to Obama talk that specific evening..highly educated, well off, business types.

They had absolutely NO, I repeat, NO idea who Rezko, and Ayers were...Wright only because of the media storm. This has to be because of the medias lack of attention. I fear though that
many voters will overlook these issues, because they think it's cool and rightous to get BHO elected.

In regards to the Chicago connection....I have to give them credit...they are spread out throughout the power centers in Washington, and I thin play a huge role in how the future will play out.

" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised

Harry Truman came out of the same St. Louis area that Tom Prendergast's machine ran.

Yet nobody ever accused Truman of being corrupted by that machine. Truman had preserved his personal integrity while there. So just dropping Prendergast's name wasn't going to work with the public.

Unless you can directly connect Obama to the corruption going on in Chicago, I don't think this line of attack is going to work.

With Rezko, you might have an argument though.

For Obama, The Narrative™ was always the most important thing in the campaign that his supporters were going to manufacture around him, with the advice of a constellation of academic-politicios as advisors. It's so powerful, and so many people have bought into it, because so many people with IQs over 135 spent so much time working on the finished product.

Everything about Obama, from his reflexive, good-natured dismissal of criticism ([smile] "Pish, posh, Steph. I've already answered those criticism...") to the deliberate positioning of him as the Democrat Reagan and a quasi-spiritual demigod surrounded by halos and and sprinking Hope and Change on the masses, all of it was designed pretty carefully to create a cult of personality around Obama that would defang his critics.

In my educated opinion, the Democrats got tired of being in the back seat when it came to having a religious and spiritual figure at the head of their party: they learned from their mistakes and created a new role for Barack Obama: that of secular high priest. They needed a Reaganesque figure and that is why so many of them decided to ditch Hillary and Bill and their overwrought, compartmentalized wonkish legalisms and slippery 200 word meandering expositions on the meaning of the word "is." That strategy had run out of gas: the American people figured enough of it out that it wasn't working any longer. Therefore, a "new kind of politics" was called for, and the Democrats worked hard on Obama's public persona.

He is very much a team effort. And as George Will noted, Obama has the steel beneath the perfectly-tailored suits to carry it off. He was a professor at the University of Chicago and I'm quite sure he has the grey matter to play this game exceptionally well, particularly with all the advice he's getting and already has received from people who are surely Smarter than Me.

As someone from originally from New Jersey, I think the "Chicago Way" is far superior. The government actually works for the people there. And as far as machine politics goes in Chicago, the situation changed considerably since the last aldermanic election when many of the "machine" candidates were swept out of office. Everything is still working. Public services are still above average for a city of this size. Daley is still getting the job done, although some his pet projects are finally being challenged. I don't agree that Illinois is more corrupt than Texas, California, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Jersey, New York. That argument is not credible, and linking Obama to old time corruption is even less so.

Also, the main reason east coast elites are freaking out over Hillary's loss is because their hopes for Washington D.C. job promotions just went out the window. Talking to some young turks studying government, political science etc. at the prestigious institutions back east, it seems that their Professors see that their destinies are tied to Hillary. Back in the ivory tower since Bush took office, they're looking for new appointments in the federal government. The elites support Hillary because they want to go along for the ride. There is a Chicago v. New York, Midwest v. East undertone to this election that's not being discussed. In my opinion the future of the Democrats is not in Massachusetts, New York, or even Pennsylvania. Chicago style Democrats know how to appeal to the working class, the elites, the soccer moms. Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota... this is where the new Democratic party is emerging. At least this go around, the east is just along for the ride. Viva Chicago - America's best American City.