in large part to try to show a growing influence in western states that many people think of as Republican strongholds.Yet the lineup of speakers for the Democratic National Convention, particularly those who will speak Monday night, makes me feel like the show I’ll be missing is a political rally similar to many I have seen before – in Chicago.
ALL WE’D NEED is the “Picasso” statue in the background, and we might as well be able to have the convention speakers at the Daley Center plaza.
Now as it turns out, potential first lady Michelle Obama (a life-long South Sider) will be the primary speaker today, although Obama’s sister, Maya, and brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, will also get a bit of attention – letting us know why their brother/brother-in-law ought to get to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., for at least four years.
Yet others who will put on a show will include Illinois SEIU President Tom Balanoff, Jerry Kellman who originally hired Obama to be a community organizer when he first came to Chicago in the mid-1980s, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., (yet not his father, longtime civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson).
Then, there is the gathering of Chicago politicos who do their bidding at the Statehouse in Springfield, but will be gathering in Denver on Monday. They include Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, state Comptroller Dan Hynes (who lost to Obama in the 2004 primary for U.S. Senate), Chicago city Clerk (and former state Senate colleague of Obama) Miguel del Valle, and Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis (who would not have a political career had Obama not taken an interest in his one-time student at the University of Chicago).
THE IDEA IS that the first night of the convention is supposed to consist of a list of speakers who knew Barack, “way back when…” Our Chicago politicos are supposed to let the nation know who Obama really is.
It is meant to combat all the ridiculous rhetoric that will come from Republican loyalists in coming months that Obama is nothing more than a political hack from Chicago.
Trust me when I write that if Obama really were nothing more than a “Chicago machine” type, then he never would have aspired to become president, or probably not even to serve in the U.S. Senate.
He would have been content to serve in the Illinois Senate for a few decades, and perhaps would be one of the people under consideration in coming months for the role of state Senate president – now that current leader Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, is retiring.
REPUBLICAN POLITICAL HACKS are more truthful when they try to attack Obama as a creation of the overly intellectual University of Chicago faculty and as a product of the activist spirit that has long dominated Obama’s home neighborhood of Hyde Park.
Anybody who seriously knows their Chicago politics understands how far Hyde Park (with its pseudo-integrated population) stands outside the mentality that dominates Chicago City Hall.
The late political science academic Milton Rakove’s classic book about “the Machine” was entitled “We Don’t Want Nobody Nobody Sent” because that was the reaction he got from Machine types when he tried to volunteer to work on city political campaigns, and they learned he was a U of C student (Go Maroons!).
It is a complete contradiction of terms to claim Obama is a Chicago political hack AND some sort of radical. Anyone who tries to serve up that political talk is showing their ignorance.
BUT WE OUGHT to give them one bit of credit – at least they are openly trying to turn this campaign into a form of class warfare, a sleazy tactic on their part, but at least they’re not pretending to be respectable.
It would be nice if the slew of Chicago speakers (and they are all Chicago, nobody from the suburbs or rural areas that technically comprise about three-quarters of the population of Obama’s adopted home state of Illinois) on Monday can help the nation understand this concept.
Because I don’t know how many more times I will be able to tolerate hearing the Republican rhetoric about the “radical, liberal Chicago machine” politico.
Other people with local ties who will get speaking slots (and some public attention) during the rest of the week include Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., on Tuesday, and Mayor Richard M. Daley on Wednesday.
ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Democrats will include a tribute to the U.S. military and to veterans, to be presented in part by Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth.
She stands to get some attention locally because she is quite possibly the only political person at the nominating convention who has any loyalties to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Our state’s governor did not get any type of speaking slot at the Obama pep rally, er, uh, presidential nominating convention, even though he could easily have been slipped into the slew of governors who will speak Tuesday night.
Duckworth is the Iraq War veteran who lost a leg in combat, and later went on to run an unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat from the Chicago western suburbs. Her state agency post was her consolation prize.
BUT SHE COULD get a bigger boost if Obama prevails on Election Day – Duckworth is one of the people whom Blagojevich reportedly is considering to replace Barack in the U.S. Senate.
Who’s to say that the big story from Illinois at the Democratic convention won’t be the introduction to the nation of Duckworth as a national political figure (similar to how the ’04 convention’s big local story was the conception of the phenomenon now known as Obama-mania?)
Technically, for those of us looking for Chicago angles to this week’s political activity in Denver, there are two other speakers worth noting.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick grew up on the South Side and has become an Obama friend (even giving Barack permission to use some of his political rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail).
THEN, LET’S NOT forget about the “Lady from New York.” Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, D-N.Y., is a native of suburban Park Ridge who grew up in the Chicago area, until she went off to college out east, and fell in love with an Arkansas boy who some of you may have heard of.
Perhaps all the Chicago influence will give her a twinge of affection for her home town, inspiring her to get her band of loyalists to come on board the Obama bandwagon in hopes of getting a Democrat in the White House for the first time since the early days of January, 2001.
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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Democratic National Convention will try to offer a unified vision of party faithful (http://www.demconvention.com/schedule/) to bolster the chances Hawaiian-turned-Chicagoan Barack Obama can become U.S. president.
Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden is not a stranger (http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/bidens_illinois_and_daley_ties.html) to Chicago political types, who will be a dominant presence all this week (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/news/politics/denver-dnc/) in Denver.
I must confess, it never occurred to me to try to hit up you wonderful people who take the time (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/fashion/24blog.html?ref=politics) to read my commentaries and analysis to send me money so I could travel to Denver and St. Paul, Minn., to watch the political pep rallies up close. I won’t be at either convention.
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