Friday - December 12, 2008

Barack Obama always manages to rise above the fray.

I wanted to edit this and let you go to the link for the whole story.  But, I just found the article holding my interest.  Things that scare the heck out of me usually have that effect.  Or is it affect?  Whatever ... I think I fear Obama’s team as much as I do him.  Maybe more.

And with regard to this headline, Dr. Jeff said it all when he commented,“ It will be more of a public relations problem for him than anything else.”

Illinois scandal: Barack Obama always manages to rise above the fray
President-elect Barack Obama may not be implicated in the alleged effort to sell his vacated senate seat to the highest bidder, but the scandal swirling around his home-state governor is hardly welcome.

By Alexandra Starr

Obama would have liked the day’s headlines to focus on his appointment of a Nobel-prize winner to the Energy Department. Instead, Americans are riveted by how Governor Blagojevich attempted to shake down would-be Obama replacements for personal gain.

But although the attention on Illinois’s murky politics is cause for some embarrassment, it does reveal Obama to be a singularly talented politician: it gives an inkling of how very deftly he must have navigated his way through some shadowy public workings.

Given the state’s culture of machine politics, it can be difficult for someone lacking any connections to break into the highest positions in government. But Obama managed it, without even being a Chicago-native. And while he can play the most aggressive brand of hardball politics, the president-elect has always seemed to operate beyond the fray. He has cleverly made use of machine characters, without ever being branded as one.

Survey the people at the top of the Illinois political hierarchy, and the usefulness of a familial connection fast becomes apparent. The mayor, Richard M Daley, is the son of the late Richard J “Old Man” Daley, who ruled Chicago for nearly two decades. Blagojevich is the son-in-law of a powerful local politician. Jesse Jackson Jr is the oldest son of one of the most famous African-American leaders in the US. And two people who are purported to be eager to settle into the governor’s mansion – state attorney-general Lisa Madigan and state comptroller Dan Hyne – are respectively the daughter of the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and the son of a former Illinois state senate president. Chicago power brokers are often loath to let outsiders in the club. An idealistic young law student interested in campaigning for the state Democratic ticket in the 1950s was rebuffed with this phrase: “We don’t want no one no one sent.”

Obama overcame this bias against outsiders partly by cultivating powerful patrons. He became a protégé of sorts of state senator Emil Jones, a machine politician who has himself faced questions about the leveraging of influence in the legislature to funnel money and promotions to family members. Jones’s support of Obama was crucial in the 2004 senate race that catapulted the young legislator into the national spotlight. In the primary, Obama faced Dan Hynes for the Democratic nomination. Jones’s influence with the trade unions allowed Obama to ensure that some of these powerful groups either threw their support behind him or stayed neutral.

The president-elect may have occasionally forged alliances with operators such as Jones, but he has never been tarred for being of their ilk. That is in part the result of his public demeanour. He comes across as cool-headed and cerebral, ill at ease launching verbal attacks against his adversaries. During this year’s Democratic primary contest, the American media continually chided Obama for not being more combative in his debates with Hillary Clinton. But behind the scenes, it was a slightly different story: he did not hesitate to throw elbows.

Playing the good cop while embracing aggressive tactics below the radar screen is a strategy Obama seems to be importing to Washington, DC. Just look at his decision to anoint Congressman Rahm “Rahmbo” Emanuel – the most intense, take-no-prisoners politician of his generation – as his chief of staff.

Emanuel made his political debut raising money for Mayor Richard M Daley; he was renowned for making phone calls to businessmen decades his senior berating them for not shelling out sufficiently. He broke fundraising records in that election, a coup that landed him a job with the nascent Clinton presidential campaign.

But even after his candidate was elected to the White House, Emanuel didn’t forget those who hadn’t played ball: he ended a celebratory dinner vowing to exact revenge on politicians who had crossed Bill Clinton. After intoning each name, Emanuel plunged the blade of his steak knife into the table top, declaring “Dead man!” with each thrust.

It is unlikely that the incoming White House chief of staff will so publicly parade his animus in the years ahead. But his crack-the-whip disposition will certainly help muscle bills through Congress. Observers remarked that the Rahm appointment was a signal that the president-elect was intent on moving his agenda forward once installed in the White House.

And indeed, that is a strong Chicago tradition: one reason the Daley dynasty has maintained its lock on power in the city is because both father and son have ensured that government delivered for most voters when they were in charge.

It seems Obama did learn from the city’s masters during his years in Chicago: while he eschewed the methods of obscenity-laced phone calls and corruption, he picked up how to win campaigns and muscle through legislative initiatives. He himself pointed to those years in that world during the presidential campaign.

“I’m skinny, but I’m tough,” he reassured voters. “I’m from Chicago.”

THE ONE

Posted by peiper     on 12/12/2008 at 04:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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