We're the Second City again.
We lost the ranking as the second largest population center to Los Angeles back in the '80s. We're over it, though we have clung to the Second City label for sentimental reasons. Or maybe we just can't count: the Big Ten Conference has 11 teams.
But with the election of Barack Obama, the urban orbits have shifted. After Washington, D.C., Chicago has won Second City status once again, based on politics rather than population.
The national media positions itself along the Chicago River at Michigan Avenue for backdrops to their televised reports while covering the President-elect. It heads over to the Chicago Hilton for press conferences, where the PE calls on the locals, such as Chicago Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet and asks about how her arm ended up in a sling. And Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell turned up on "Meet The Press."
Chicagoans are moving up to the national stage, raising their personal and their city's profiles. David Axelrod is going to D.C. as Obama's senior adviser. Rahm Emmanuel will be chief of staff. No doubt there will be more. And no doubt we'll be hearing about the "Chicago mafia" more than since the days of Al Capone and his outfit.
And don't forget other prominent Chicagoans are on the national stage: Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. And of course media queen Oprah Winfrey.
The D.C. elite will have to get used to the Chicago way.
Tom Brokaw seemed a bit bewildered when he introduced Obama transition team leader Valerie Jarrett on "Meet The Press," saying:
You're really very well-known in Chicago, but our national audience may not be as familiar with you. So we have prepared what we call a "Meet The Press" version of a baseball card. We're going to tell our folks out there watching a little bit more about you. We did not put a White Sox or a Cubs insignia on it. We know that you're probably a White Sox fan, given where you live.
Jarrett admitted to being a Sox fan, just like Obama.
The national crowd, well acquainted with the Cubs, will have to get used to the fact that there are two baseball teams in Chicago, even if there's only one political party here.