Barack Obama may be Chicago’s “hometown politico” in whom we show some pride for making a serious run for president, but I wonder how much longer we can seriously think of him as being one of our own – or if he’s even still “ours” right now?
Obama has made his move into the realm of national and foreign affairs and is unlikely to ever be professionally satisfied again in the world of Chicago politics, where officials are parochial enough to get obsessed with the number of sanitation workers on the municipal payroll.
WHAT MADE ME consider this was a recent item on another weblog (one published by former state Rep. Cal Skinner) where he suggests that Obama someday have his presidential library and museum erected in DeKalb, Ill., as a tribute to the five students who were slain there on Valentine’s Day.
Skinner, who points out that Obama bothered to show up at memorial services for the five deceased Northern Illinois University students, says we should not automatically assume that a presidential library would be destined for Chicago.
In a sense, Skinner is right (although the “gentleman from McHenry” is a bit cracked if he seriously thinks Northern Illinois University is a suitable place for such a facility). Obama has become bigger than the neighborhood mentality that so defines Chicago politics and its sister political culture – that of the Statehouse in “Springpatch.”
My memories of being a Statehouse reporter who covered Obama as a state legislator (our career paths overlapped for three years in the late 1990s) recall a person who even then was viewed by some of his legislative colleagues as being out of his element in Springfield.
A COMBINATION OF an Ivy League education and mentality of a one-time community organizer meant that he looked at public service as benefiting the public good in a way that didn’t fit in with the political mentality that allowed some people to building lasting careers in Illinois government.
That is not an insult to Obama. It compliments him for not truly fitting in with a collection of politicos to whom “pork-barrel spending” is not an obscenity. Even for those whose priority does not focus on bringing back projects to the home district, the key to getting ahead in Springfield or at City Hall is to have the ability to deliberately avoid looking at the big picture on issues.
It may very well be Obama’s ability to see beyond Chicago that makes him a viable presidential candidate (and possibly the first Chicagoan – albeit an adopted one – to win the presidency).
The other two presidents with Illinois ties both had their connections to the state's rural portion, although it was the growing Chicago Republicans of the mid-19th century who were influential in pushing the concept of Abraham Lincoln as a presidential candidate, then getting their counterparts from across the country to accept the idea and vote for him in 1860.
IN THE CASE of Ronald Reagan, he left Illinois early in life. It was his California connections that boosted him into politics.
So how much do we really get to brag about Barack Obama being “our” guy just because we’re Chicagoans? At what point will it make us seem overly parochial to be noting that he is one of our two officials in the U.S. Senate – at least for the rest of this year.
Even though he did not on Tuesday bury the presidential dreams of challenger Hillary R. Clinton, we have to wonder with his significant lead in the delegate count, has Obama now reached the status of Adlai Stevenson?
Adlai (the Second, that is) was an Illinoisan who had his alliances with the “Chicago Machine” that enabled him to win a term as Illinois governor, and appoint future Mayor Richard J. Daley to be his state Revenue Department director.
BUT HIS TERM in the Executive Mansion in Springfield, a post which Stevenson himself always viewed with pride, is a footnote to the big picture.
To get at the significance of Stevenson II in our political history, we need to focus on his unsuccessful presidential races and his stint as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where he played a key role in helping the United States gain the moral high ground among the nations of the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Not even the mentions of Obama during likely testimony in the upcoming political corruption trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko will be enough to taint Barack as a Chicago political hack. In fact, the trial has the potential to show just how far removed from the Chicago Machine mentality Obama truly is – even if he still does owe Rezko a favor or two.
So people ought to really forget the talk that Obama will someday return to Chicago to run for mayor, or Illinois governor. His future is on the D.C. Scene. If he ever tried to return to City Hall, the political powers that be would see it as an invasion of their “turf” and would go out of their way to take Obama down in ways that would make the Hillary Clinton campaign seem like a smooch-fest.
WHEN I SEE how close Obama is to getting the presidential nomination, I have two emotions. One is to kick myself for not developing some stronger personal tie during those early legislative years. The other is to realize that this is the closest I will ever come to being able to say I knew a president back when he was a nobody.
I can’t envision any of the other political people I have encountered having sufficient ambition or drive to want to work in Washington – not even some of the politicos I covered as a reporter who went on to serve in Congress.
To me, the most ridiculous thing I ever heard about Gov. Rod Blagojevich is that the man used to have serious ambitions to want to be president himself. Does anyone who seriously has what it takes to be president put together a staff that sends out $1 million checks to the wrong group?
The role just doesn’t mesh with the image of the man I picked up back when I was a Statehouse reporter and he was a legislator who focused his attention on his home Lincoln Square and Ravenswood neighborhoods. Even after moving “up and out” of the Illinois Legislature to Congress, he only lasted six years in the District of Columbia before returning to Chicago to run for governor.
SO AS MUCH as Cal Skinner would like to have that presidential library somewhere in rural Illinois, to me the idea makes as much sense as the concept that Cal will be the second politico I know to make a serious run for president. Perhaps we could put the Skinner Library and Museum at NIU? Or perhaps Whattsamatta U.?
Besides, on the couple of occasions when I have speculated about where a presidential museum could be located (admittedly, such talk is ridiculously premature to take seriously), I always find myself envisioning Obama and potential first lady Michelle retiring to Hawaii.
He was born there, spent much of his childhood there, and his grandmother and a sister still live in Honolulu. I also understand a Hawaii vacation was an Obama family tradition until last year, when the demands of an active presidential campaign caused him to cancel the trip.
I COULD EASILY see the Obamas spending his retiring years lapping up the Polynesian lifestyle and ample sunshine, with a presidential museum becoming yet another attraction for local tourism for those rare moments when one doesn't want to be on the beach.
And for those who say that thinking of having Obama leave Chicago is somehow disrespectful to the Second City, I disagree. It would probably make him the ultimate Chicagoan.
Just think of how many lifelong residents decided upon retirement to leave to “get away from the weather” and go live somewhere where it is unnaturally nice and pleasant.
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EDITOR’S NOTES: Former Illinois legislator Cal Skinner’s speculation about a presidential museum (http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2008/03/how-about-putting-barack-obama.html) for Barack Obama is what motivated me down the path of idle speculation that you just endured.
Consider for a moment what life would become like for the White House press corps if Obama had some sort of Hawaii residence. Following eight years of traipsing after George W. Bush when he would spend his downtime at his home in isolated Crawford, Texas (http://crawford-texas.org/), they’d have to get used to “enduring” an existence with Obama in Honolulu. Instead, they will learn the ins and outs of being Chicagoans.
How ignorant was I (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2008/01/obama-meant-for-bigger-playing-fields.html) of how big Barack would become? Very!
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