| Main |

The nation sees one Obama, Chicago knows another

As the first African American to secure a major-party presidential nomination, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has understandably been the subject of much analysis across the country that focuses on race.

But overlooked is another potential political first: Americans have never sent a Chicagoan to the White House.

And one intriguing question posed by the freshman IllinoIllinois freshman Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is a close ally of longtime Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of the city's also longtime political bossis senator's candidacy is whether they are ready now.

For all his talk elsewhere about change and his national image as a fervent reformer, Obama on the contrary remains fundamentally a product of a Chicago and Illinois political culture renowned for corruption and filled with curious characters who range from felonious to just outrageous.

Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, Obama's political mentor in the state capital of Springfield, is about as old-school as they come. Just last month, the Chicago Democrat publicly ridiculed an attempt to block another pay raise for state legislators by sarcastically declaring: "I've got to get me some food stamps."

Obama's stable of political friends is broadly populated with others like Jones and the recently convicted Tony Rezko. Revealingly, whenever the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has dabbled in Windy City and Cook County politics in recent years, he has frequently failed to come down on the side of political progressives and reformers.

This little-known side of Obama's political life may well surprise many across the country who see in the well-spoken candidate an entirely different person. Bob Secter and John McCormick have the full story at the Swamp.

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: Associated Press

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c630a53ef00e55387dd9b8834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The nation sees one Obama, Chicago knows another:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Obama is also the first younger Baby Boomer to have a shot at the White House. Hooray--the younger Boomers finally get out from under the shadow of the older ones!

Barack Obama is too unknown by most americans. He should be scrutinized more by the media so people can leare more about him. He is the least qualified of all the candidates to be president. He cannot bring people together as he says, has no mind to reach across party lines, has problems speaking when he's not reading and can't lead in anything. Obama's 20 year friendship with Wright, Ayers, Rezko, Pfleger and Farrakhan must have given him an anti-american view, just as they have. I don't want anyone with this baggage, elected president.

So your point is...politics in all other big cites are totally above-board, transparent, honest and clean? lol

I would point out Obama got mandatory police videotaping passed in the Illinois Senate, and that he's gotten some government transparency acts passed in the U.S. Senate.

Connect the dots - Chicago and Illinois clearly demonstrated to him the need for these sorts of laws. He sees a problem, he fixes it. Isn't that exactly the sort of person we want in government?

This article is absurd. Must be a slow news day when you have to resort to this type of nonsense to get people to read your column.

Post a comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate.
Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been approved.

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In







Follow us on ... »

Follow @latimestot for political news and backgrounders sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.
Our Bloggers

Andrew MalcolmAndrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.

Johanna NeumanJohanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
The daily destination for breaking news from The Times and other top political sources on the Web.
Political blog from the Chicago Tribune.

All L.A. Times Blogs

All The Rage
American Idol Tracker
Angels Unplugged
Babylon & Beyond
Big Picture
Booster Shots
California Consumer
Comments Blog
Company Town
Culture Monster
Daily Dish
Daily Mirror
Daily Travel & Deal Blog
Dish Rag
Dodger Thoughts
Fabulous Forum
Gold Derby
Greenspace
Hero Complex
Homicide Report
Jacket Copy
L.A. at Home
L.A. Land
L.A. Now
L.A. Unleashed
La Plaza
Lakers
Money & Co.
Movable Buffet
Opinion L.A.
Outposts
Pop & Hiss
Readers' Representative Journal
Show Tracker
Technology
Ticket to Vancouver
Top of the Ticket
Up to Speed
Varsity Times Insider
Categories