Obama, Chicago Machine Wonder

Robert Novak asks What's the Matter with Obama? And the Chicago way is getting some play for Illinois' favorite son in this election season. Front and center in the WSJ, "Latest Attacks Roil Democrats: For Obama, Chicago Days Honed Tactics". Starts off with this:

In his first run for public office in 1996, Barack Obama faced an unexpected obstacle. A liberal black incumbent had encouraged him to run for the Illinois state senate seat she intended to vacate. Then she changed her mind, deciding to run again.

Mr. Obama hired a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, challenged the validity of signatures on her nominating petitions, and got her thrown off the ballot. He eventually ran unopposed, launching the career that has made him the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president.

Alice Palmer got in his way. Barack Obama is just another ambitious change-agent who changed nothing really in Chicago. More:

Mr. Obama declined to be interviewed for this article. But he often points to his Chicago roots as proof that he can take the "sharp elbows" of politics. "I'm from Chicago. I know politics," he said at an outdoor rally in Harrisburg, Pa., on Saturday night. "I'm skinny, but I'm tough."

When Mr. Obama arrived in Chicago a year after graduating from Columbia University, community organizer Gerald Kellman hired him to work in a poor and working-class black neighborhood. He was "very naïve politically," says Mr. Kellman. "He was looking for the civil-rights movement, but the civil-rights movement was over. He was trying to figure out what the equivalent would be.

Yeah, well he came up with it--Barack Obama, we are the change we've been waiting for--Barack Obama, the Chicago (Machine) Wonder of the World. The multiculti Hawaii-Columbia-Harvard-U of C Elite Exposition. In 1893 the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago was a symbol of American Exceptionalism. Despite the beauty of the City of Chicago that endures today, there is nothing of the grandeur and hope for America in Obama's real message for us now.

UPDATE: More Obama questions and connections floating around. The Tribune puts up a vague teaser of a story over the weekend on the Obamas' finances, which RezkoWatch digs into--did Rezko play real estate fairy for the Obamas on more than one occasion? And Bill Ayers' relationship with Chesa Boudin. NY Times:

They have also brought up Chesa Boudin, 21, the son of David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, who are serving prison terms for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in Rockland County, N.Y., that left four people dead. Last month, Ms. Boudin's application for parole was rejected.

resurfaces in the news in relationship to Hugo Chavez, and the Woods Fund. Obama and Ayers served on the board of the Woods Fund together, and Ayers is still on the board of the Woods Fund, as well as on the advisory board to Chavez (click on Directorio)

Presidencia

Luis Bonilla Molina

Directorio

Haiman El Troudi

Maximilien Sánchez A.

Gilberto Giménez

Héctor Navarro

Pedro González

Edgardo Lander

Asesores

Marta Harnecker

Michael Lebowitz

Juan Carlos Monedero

Victor Ríos

Algunos Cooperantes Internacionales

Bill Ayers

Peter Mclaren

Theotonio dos Santos

Nathalia Jaramillo

Eva Golinger

Jorge Gantiva

Ezequiel Ander Egg

Paulo Padilha

Chesa Boudin

Al Campbell

HT Pat Hickey. As we know, Chavez bankrolled FARC terrorists, who heart Obama. Who told FARC so much about Barack anyway, hmm? Among others. Quite the foreign fan club. Gee, why didn't the NY Times bring this up about Boudin, hmm?