How Chicago Shaped Obama

New Yorker:

One day in 1995, Barack Obama went to see his alderman, an influential politician named Toni Preckwinkle, on Chicago's South Side, where politics had been upended by scandal. Mel Reynolds, a local congressman, was facing charges of sexual assault of a sixteen-year-old campaign volunteer. (He eventually resigned his seat.) The looming vacancy set off a fury of ambition and hustle; several politicians, including a state senator named Alice Palmer, an education expert of modest political skills, prepared to enter the congressional race. Palmer represented Hyde Park--Obama's neighborhood, a racially integrated, liberal sanctuary--and, if she ran for Congress, she would need a replacement in Springfield, the state capital. Obama at the time was a thirty-three-year-old lawyer, university lecturer, and aspiring office-seeker, and the Palmer seat was what he had in mind when he visited Alderman Preckwinkle.

"Barack came to me and said, 'If Alice decides she wants to run, I want to run for her State Senate seat,' " Preckwinkle told me. We were in her district office, above a bank on a street of check-cashing shops and vacant lots north of Hyde Park. Preckwinkle soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful. Four years later, in 2000, she backed Obama in a doomed congressional campaign against a local icon, the former Black Panther Bobby Rush. And in 2004 Preckwinkle supported Obama during his improbable, successful run for the United States Senate. So it was startling to learn that Toni Preckwinkle had become disenchanted with Barack Obama.

Read the whole story: New Yorker

Comments

[AdamND]

Actually the Cover cartoon is fairly racists. It shows Obama dressed like an arab holding an AK47.

[nosanity]

congrats obamabots the cotton candy man , the candidate that promised change has already delivered ... in spades ...brought to you by the capitulation wing of the dnc , we give you obama the man who stands for nothing . oh you thought he was going to wait until jan. 09 to deliver

[TXOBAMAGIRL73]

Do people really want to continue believe this man has no backbone..­.I'm happy he is who he is because of what he has seen...It was very comfortable for the Rethug and Clinton to paint him with the naive and weak brush....N­ow this article say naive never shrewed always, you have to be in politics, if not you get eating alive by real wolves. So showing you have some wolf in you keeps those who wish to feast upon you in their politic place. So watch out and don't get it twisted.

[LordKelvin]

OBAMAGIRL you

"I'm happy he is who he is...".

But I would submit the real question is , "WHO IS HE?"

Indeed, one should not discount the words of his RELIGIOUS MENTOR of 20 years, the Very Reverend Jerimiah Wright who sermonized, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS A POLITICIAN".

COGITO, ERGO SUM.

[Deaninphilly]

My, My, My. How the O's turn. Now they can longer deny that their guy is a typical politician. Gee, any wonder he's now throwing you under the bus with his recent "changes". Oh, I know, I know he always was that way. He didn't pander to the far lefties of the party during the primary he's always been to the center right. Blah, blah, blah.

Oh, keep the venon coming. THat's ok, because we are sitting back and watching all the things you said about H R C is coming home to roost in your hero worship of a new kind of hope and change, but apparently worse. LOL.

Seems when he's done with you, off you go. Let's see what he does with all your "support" if you get him office.

[SaulGoode]

Baracky is the agent of change.

If you don't like his position on something, don't worry, he'll change it...at least once.

Seriously, how in the heck did this guy make it this far?

His record as a "community organizer" is a joke. The South Side is worse off now.

He claims that his voting record in the state senate was because he kept pushing the wrong button.

In the US senate, he voted "present" on any controversial issue.

Contrary to what he and the MSM claim, he said in the 1st Dem debate that he did not know how he would have voted on the war authorization.

He's changed his position on 1) Iraq, 2) NAFTA, 3) campaign finance, 4) FISA, 5) gun control, 6) welfare reform, 7) meeting with foreign leaders, 8) faith-based initiatives, 9) knowing a foreign language, 10) promising not to run for the presidency, 11) Iran as a threat...e­tc., etc,

there has never been a more incompetent, dishonest presidential candidate

[kay]

The Maverick just threw his friend of 30 years and national co-chair under the bus.

Does this mean he isn't a supply-sider anymore?

He was one for how long? 4 months?

[hubris2]

Claims sound like the echo of our bullet-point pundit MSM. Anyone who has taken the time to read beyond the headlines and tune out the propaganda egomaniacs knows that his nuanced stances on most of these issues can't fit the scroll on the bottom of your screen.

[alieninvader]

I'd love to see documentation on where he's actually changed his positions.

[BWonka]

Shut up, name tro//

[bennofs]

Have you noticed; there's the most incompetent, dishonest president in all American history sitting right now in the Oval Office who was at one time a incompetent, dishonest presidential candidate.

[NTO08]

Superb piece, as one would expect from The New Yorker...I especially love this line:

Ivory Mitchell, the ward chairman in Obama’s neighborhood, says of Obama that “he was typical of what most aspiring politicians are: self-centered—that ‘I can do anything and I’m willing to do it overnight.­’ ”

What have all of us who have never been enamored of this man been saying all along?
His motivations are transparent, his ambition, bald.

[livesimply]

For chissakes, Hillary lost the nomination­..get over it already.

[livesimply]

What is your point? Swaying opinions? It's not going to happen, so just vote for McCain if you want.

[ldsrapha]

GET HELP!!! Now!! I hope you don't have kids!!

[lvgal]

I thought the article was very informative. I always wondered if Obama was just saying he was a progressive for political reasons but it really looks like he went further left for political reasons.
It also explains some of the turns he's made already.
Progressiv­e/Independ­ent is where he started and probably where he'll be after he's elected.
After reading this article and seeing his one/one with Fareed Z. on CNN today, he's looking much better to me.

[Gemma08]

Fascinating man. There are going to be many many books written about Barack Obama.

[BhunduBoy]

I don't know what Obama learned in Harvard law school about the US Constitution, but his vote in favor of FISA and retroactive immunity is very disappointment. Not a reason to vote McCain, though, but still disturbing. And he should be reminded about this serious flaw of thinking.

[MagisterLudi]

Learn English, take a civics class at your night school. Then you can presume to talk about "flaw of thinking." Where these people like this FalafelBoy come from anyway?

[SaulGoode]

Politically shaped in Chicago, huh?

Little wonder he's a lying crook.

[clsmithj]

Screw you Chicago's better than New York

[Deaninphilly]

Ummm, NO it's not. Chicago is the arm pit of America as far as politics go. Now stop trying to defend it you only make yourself look bad. It's not called Chicago politics for nothing.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

I'm from Chicago, and I live in NYC now.

NYC kicks Chicago's ass in everything. I don't miss anything from Chicago (except for some family members).

As for the politics, Daley runs Chicago like an emperor. The city council are a bunch of stooges that do his bidding.

[ohiomark]

Don't forget: "Vote early and often"

[kay]

Or, you could brutally dump the disabled wife and marry into a wealthy, politically connected family, like The Maverick did.

Cindy's daddy had a lot to do with The Maverick's success. Might want to read up on it.

[VOTER]

'Move to Ohio, where you can be sure you will not get to vote or your will not count

if you do. We have our state pols in jail to prove it.'

Sing your praises, Idiot!

[BWonka]

Especially in Ohio where they never get it right... or too far right.

[mcole]

uhuh. as compared to, shall we say, john mccain who is only an adultering, bald face lying, pandering, possibly lying state secret giving, deceitful lying son of a gun?

or, for example, war criminal george bush?

or shoot me in the face cheney?

or are you all stupid cant you see that i'm never wrong rumsfeld?

shall i carry on?

[BWonka]

Lying crook - good definition of you, name tro//.

[realtalk]

Obama's rise in politics is TAME and normal, political stuff, especially compared to the Clintons, who themselves, BOTH, of them, Bill, and Hillary Clinton have been, themselves, involved in countless scandals.

And let's not forget that John McCain, HIMSELF, was a part of the Keating 5 SCANDAL, where John McCain and 4 other United States Senators were ALL accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

John McCain was accused of improperly aiding, and receiving money, and other benefits from Charles H. Keating, Jr., (who was chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association), which was being investigated by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board .

John McCain received MONEY, and OTHER GIFTS from Keatings (who was being investigated), and in return for this money and gifts, John McCain tried to pressure those who were at the head of the investigation into Keating's criminal acts to back off, and shut it down.
For John McCain's efforts to kill the criminal investigation, John McCain received $112,000 from Keating himself, and Keating relatives, for McCain's Senate campaign.
John McCain also made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

JOHN McCAIN IS DAMN LUCKY HE STILL HAS A POLITICAL CAREER, AFTER THE CORRUPTION HE WAS INVOLVED IN!!!

[gotalife]

Chicago rivals La. for corruption.

[kay]

You don't know jack about Chicago.

You, like the national press, thought Rezko was the 'smoking gun" and Ayres was this out-there radical figure in Chicago politics.

Neither is true. HRC knew neither was true. She isn't as gullible as her followers.

Chicago papers have been following O for years. Because the DC/NY axis don't know jack about "flyover" country, they didn't read any of it.

It's a huge city in the US. It's not Siberia.

[pacats]

You know how the hate or smear groups work. They simply twist the facts to justify their deviant actions. This is a good article. It presents interviews from folks who like and dislike O. It also shows the details of the lengthy experience O has and how tough he can be.

[GuyFawkes]

And the Clintons trump them both.

Has she returned all that stuff she stole out of the WH yet?

[kay]

And, Arkansas was and is a national model for good government :)

The corruption center of Appalachia.

[Mattie]

but, but, but the Clinton's are bad too. That's your reasoning, so much for the politics of hope and change.

[ohiomark]

Hillary spent time in Chicago too. There must be something in the Lake Michigan drinking water.

[HumeSkeptic]

And you rival a gnat in intelligence.

[apoyo]

Excellent read. Brings to mind a line from a movie "no fate but what you make"

[Americafirstalways]

Israel Believes Obama Will 'Deprive' It of Political Support for
Iran Attack



http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/07/israel-believes-obama-will-deprive-it-of-support-to-attack-iran.html



Here is a tiny URL for the above one:



http://tinyurl.com/5bpvvb

[MaybeMilo]

I hope he does.....

[Sarahjan]

I heard that Obama is a big classical film fan. New see Orson Welles' Citizen; Obama is Citizen Kane.

[joeyp404]

And the sled is called Rose Budbama.

[BigTex4Obama]

"It established a reputation that ‘you’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to roll me over, you’re not going to jam me."
"Like many politicians, Obama is paradoxical. He is by nature an incrementalist, yet he has laid out an ambitious first-term agenda (energy independence, universal health care, withdrawal from Iraq). He campaigns on reforming a broken political process, yet he has always played politics by the rules as they exist, not as he would like them to exist"

Those two passages shows an toughness and a fundamental understanding of what it takes to win. This article was a very good read......­.

[livesimply]

Well put. I agree entirely.

[JonStewart4President]

Oh Noes! Obama is AMBITIOUS! and a POLITICAN! ZOMG, I never knew that. I thought he was made out of unicorn tears and rainbows.

Er, I know Obama is ambitious and a politican. He wouldn't be where he is now if he wasn't. And a President needs to know how the system works to work the different levers of it, and sometimes yes, to play hardball. I don't want Jimmy Carter with good intentions and no idea of how power works in Washingon DC. But neither do I want someone who has spent decades in DC.

And at the very least, I know that Obama has less of a history of corruption than McCain. Blah blah Tony Rezko, who has legally proven to have no real ties to Obama. The same cannot be said of McCain and his being a part of the Keating 5. And his years of land deals for friends, his Abramhoff connection. His violating his own campaign finance bill. His advisors which is filled with lobbyists and people like Phil Gramm. Even when Obama horrendeously FAILS for me (FISA anyone?) he's still better than McCain. Which low bar sure, but hey, I'll take any improvement at this point.

[kay]

Holtz-Eakin: “I haven’t spoken to Senator Gramm since the comments took place, and I’m not expecting to.”

How dastardly CYNICAL of the Maverick! Shame on him!