Daley's Machine

This video came to me through a circuitous route (i.e.: by way of The Interface via Illinois Review under the auspices of Reverse Spin with the assistance of the Boston Globe.) While the original Globe story (along with their own video) presents itself as an indictment against Barack Obama's support of federal subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build and maintain low-income housing, it is as least as much a "bitch slap" of Obama for his lax legislative oversight of Grove Parc Plaza while he was an Illinois State Senator.

It also calls into question the credentials and motivations of the people with whom Obama has surrounded himself. From Valerie Jarrett, chief executive of private firm that managed Grove Parc and a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, to Allison Davis, a developer involved in the early stages of Grove Parc and a top fundraiser for Obama's U.S. Senate campaign, to indicted Chicago "wheeler-and-dealer" (and Obama fundraiser) Antoin "Tony" Rezko, Sen. Obama has encircled himself with persons of dubious intentions.

This level of overt malfeasance belies Obama's message of change, but as a life-long Chicagoan, I am not at all shocked that the politics of hope would be subsumed into the enduring realities of graft, mismanagement and general crookedness. But let's be clear about one thing; the cynosure of dishonesty in Chicago is not Obama, as he is merely the newest fool trying to play and old game. The real and present danger of an Obama presidency is that he would be another patsy for Chicago's Mayor-for-life, Richard "Baby Doc" Daley.

As it is, Daley is perhaps the most powerful mayor in America, with sock puppets operating at his behest at the local, state and national levels. Should Obama become President, Mayor Daley would be able to extend his tentacles right into the Oval Office. In as much as Jarrett and Davis, along with Obama campaign vizier David Alexrod are confirmed members of the Daley machine (and prime beneficiaries of its largess), there is no doubt that there would be a direct line of communication from the fifth floor of Chicago's City Hall to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Again, as a life-long Chicagoan and someone who grew up not far from Grove Parc Place, I can assure you that this would not be good.