Alliance Could make Obama Next President

[illinoisprogressive]

The Daley political machine in Chicago has thrown its support behind presidential candidate Barack Obama, forging an alliance that could make him the next president.

Although the machine supported Obama’s rivals early in his political career, viewing him as an outsider, Obama’s success on the national stage has changed all that. “It’s a simple political calculus,” Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based watchdog group Better Government Association, said. “Here is a popular guy with a reasonable shot at winning, from the same party. It’s good for Illinois if he wins. So the machine the mayor backing Obama." Stewart adds that Obama has cultivated a “peaceful coexistence” with the Daley machine, without becoming one of its operatives.

So who controls Obama? And to whom might he be beholden?

Obama’s charisma and savvy have given him more flexibility in dealing with the realities of getting elected, sources reported. His charm has elicited geysers of support from smitten voters. The conventional wisdom holds that Obama’s political fortunes aren’t dependent on ward bosses, meaning that the senator can distance himself from the political corruption for which the city is infamous. “There is no back-room cabal that engineered the Obama candidacy,” says Stewart. “He has been swept along by his own personal popularity, and clearly his campaign has been driven simply by his own personal appeal to many. The old rules don’t apply to this guy.”

“He has never been viewed as a total guy one way or the other in the various camps here in the state,” says one longtime observer of Chicago’s political scene, who asked not to be identified. “He is a very savvy guy and negotiated his way through numerous elections, doing so by making as many friends and playing it clean enough. But he knows how to raise money.”

snip-

In 2004, when Obama ran for the U.S. Senate, he faced the Daley machine once again. Daley didn’t support Obama. Daley’s brother, Cook County Board Finance Committee Chairman John Daley, sided with Obama’s opponent in the primary, State Comptroller Dan Hynes. Hynes is the son of longtime Democratic machine pol Tom Hynes.

It is a measure of Obama’s strength among African-American voters — augmented by his close friendship with Chicago talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and his prominent membership in a black megachurch led by his mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright — that he defeated Hynes in the primaries. Obama won 53 percent of the primary vote to Hynes’ 24 percent. In the general election, Daley reluctantly threw his support to Obama, who went on to win the general election in a landslide.

He owed his victory largely to a coalition of African-Americans, Chicago “lakefront liberals,” and other progressives. That the large primary field split the white vote helped as well. Hynes later urged Obama to run for president. “Barack Obama is a man for these times,” Hynes said in September 2006, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. “He and he alone can restore the hope and optimism that made this country great.” As Obama started winning elections and acquiring powerful friends, the word got back to Daley: This guy can keep winning. By that point, however, others had invested in Obama’s future, and Daley’s opportunity to control Obama had slipped away. Despite having challenged the power brokers by previously taking on incumbents, or opposing Daley-anointed candidates, Obama has cunningly mended fences. He now has almost all of the state’s most important politicians lined up to support his run for president. An example of the Illinois senator’s ability to turn rivals into allies: His former rival, Rush, now supports Obama’s White House bid.

Obama has also won the support of William Daley, one of the mayor’s brothers. A former U.S. Commerce Secretary during the Clinton administration who also was chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, Daley is a key player on Obama’s team and brings massive business connections to the table. William Daley has been widely described in media reports as a “friend” of Obama’s, and he lends substance to the candidate’s economic policies.


snip-

“It’s the black base,” says Gerald Rosenberg, a professor of political science and law at the University of Chicago. Having that initial base support permitted Obama to do what he does very well, Rosenberg says — “cross racial lines and to give people hope.

“In the primary, what was surprising is how well he ran downstate, against white opponents,” Rosenberg notes.
Rosenberg says Obama’s ability to bridge diverse cultures may enable him to avoid the snares of corruption and financial chicanery that seemingly festoon the Second City’s traditional, machine-driven politics. That’s important, because voters are weary of scandal and looking for a change.“Illinois is not Louisiana,” Sabato says.
“There probably is less to uncover to Obama. I’m not saying there is nothing there. He doesn’t have that many elections under his belt; he has not had to go out and campaign election after election. He is relatively fresh and this is where ‘inexperience’ helps.”

Sabato adds that Obama’s newcomer role also will make it easier for him to weather the storm, if and when he has to jettison a controversial financial supporter.“There isn’t a major politician who hasn’t had a financial scandal or two, or who doesn’t have one to uncover,” Sabato says.“It’s still out there.”

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=5954

[msongs]

1. worked for JFK, corruption might work for Obama too nt

[Colobo]

2. Obama will be a great president. He will make you proud.

[ncabot22]

3. That myth has been debunked over the years

There is so much information out there on the 1960 election. Here's a link for you to peruse.

http://www.slate.com/id/91350/

[hedgehog]

4. What that article doesn't address is what was going on in

solidly Republican southern Illinois that election. One way or another, here is the genesis of the myth that Republicans must guard the polls from unregistered voters.