Obama: a fresh face or an old-school tactician?

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Obama: a fresh face or an old-school tactician?
The presidential contender may be sold as something new, but in Illinois' hardball politics, he fit right in.
By Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 8, 2007

CHICAGO -- He managed to burnish a reformer's reputation while swimming in the muddy waters of special-interest- infested state politics. He worked on a nice-guy image while practicing the hardball and brawling tactics of Chicago-style politics. Now, promoting himself as a fresh face on the national political stage, proclaiming his distance from lobbyists and the Washington culture of special interests, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has to contend with his own history.

From Chicago to Springfield, his past is filled with decidedly old-school political tactics -- a history of befriending powerful local elders, assisting benefactors and special interests, and neutralizing rivals. Obama may be packaged as something new among presidential contenders, but in this town where politics is played like a blood sport he fit right in.

"He knows how the game is played," said Jay Stewart, executive director of Better Government Assn., a nonpartisan group that honored Obama for helping overhaul state ethics law. Stewart called Illinois politics "deeply troubled, if not corrupt" at its core.

"It is very difficult to come out of a system that is flawed and walk out unscathed. Sen. Obama has done better than most. But it's not as if he is a babe in the woods," Stewart said....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obamaprofile8sep08,0,1594058,full.story?coll=la-home-center