EXTRA: Even with the sides changed, partisan politics will carry on

My e-mail Friday morning about an hour before the presidential swearing-in ritual contained a plea for cash from the Democratic National Committee.
 

TRUMP: The official presidential photo

Now that we have Donald J. Trump as our president, the party wants to have as ample a cash flow as possible to pay for their many efforts to counter the activities likely to occur in coming weeks, months and years.

FOR IT WILL be a busy time of political people trying to undermine everything that has occurred in recent years of the now-departed Barack Obama presidency. After spending eight years of obstruction, now the Republican partisans are going to try to erase the actions they weren’t able to stop from occurring in the first place.

Personally, I’m less bothered by the election of Trump himself. I think the man has the intellectual heft of a Glad bag, with most of his “policies” worthy of being stuffed in such a bag and left in the alley for weekly collection.

It is the Republican caucuses in both chambers of Congress who will gain power for their members of a conservative ideological bent because they now will no longer have a chief executive capable of standing in their way.

Of course, it could turn out that Trump becomes capable of standing up to people. At which time, I have no doubt that the GOP types will be more than capable of turning on Trump and depositing his political aspirations into the aforementioned Glad bag. They're backing him because they expect him to be their political lap-dog.

TRUMP IS GOING to learn the hard way that he is a business-oriented guy trying to play politics – and showing thus far that he has no real knack for it. He is the kind of guy who seems to think he can become a real life version of that clownish character he played on television.

 

PENCE: Would presidency be ideologue dream

The executive who goes about bellowing “You’re Fired!!!” at everyone who offends him.

The baseball fan in me wonders if Trump is the equivalent of the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner – who may have put together a few championship ballclubs but also had a string of teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s where the Yankees (a franchise of baseball tradition and glory) turned to garbage.

Garbage that could easily have been stuffed into the aforementioned Glad bag.

IS THE UNITED States of America in the late 2010s about to become the equivalent of the 1990 New York Yankees – who were a 7^th Place (a.k.a., last place) team with a dreadful 67-95 record.

Newly-inaugurated President Donald J. Trump watching a ballgame with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. I wonder if hard-core Yankees fans have the best idea of what the nation faces, considering how low the Yankees sank in the early 1990s back when Trump was a regular Yankee Stadium presence

Ironic, since back in that era Steinbrenner used to like to draw pseudo-celebrities to show up at his ballpark, and those people often included Trump himself. Since with all his gaudiness, he was capable of drawing some sense of flash to himself.

That is what we’re now headed for in these coming years. As for those who call for the impeachment of Trump, keep in mind that putting an ideologue like former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence into the top post might well be the fantasy come true of the hard-core conservatives who are celebrating Friday the departure of Barack Obama from the White House.

Now I don’t doubt there will be an opposition portion of our society that will try to reduce the amount of damage being done to our nation due to the politicking being celebrated today by that segment of our society who thinks it interesting that singer Jackie Evancho is performing at the Inaugural balls taking place in D.C.

WHILE MANY OTHERS are making a point of not going (Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., has been sending me and many others her partisan e-mail messages explaining her lack of a presence in Washington), and many may even be preparing for the marches to take place across the United States on Saturday – including Chicago.

I won’t be there, and not just

Should we buy stock for all the trash we'll generate?

because the management of the newspapers I do some work for sent us all a note informing us that such activity is considered inconsistent with a so-called objective news reporter.

Although I could say that the Dem political operatives already are aware of my absence, since just a couple of days ago I received an e-mail informing me their records showed I had never contributed a dime to their cause.

Should I feel guilt that my vote wasn’t enough – even though I’d argue the ballot is the ultimate political expression one can make to respond to the many Glad bags we’re going to fill up in coming years with all the nonsense our federal government is going to produce.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: I happened to be on the Internet at 10:59 a.m. (CST) looking at the whitehouse.gov website, filled with the Obama administration information. When my clock turned to 11 a.m. (Noon, in D.C.), I hit "refresh." The screen turned solid white. Another quick refresh, and I got to see the official website pronouncing "President Donald J. Trump" (and a campaign photograph of a crowd all excited about making America great again) take its place.

It’s gonna be a zoo come Monday

I can’t help but think that the last place any rational human being wants to be on Monday is Millennium Park.

Chicago’s downtown playground is the place where Rahm Emanuel wants to take the oath of office that makes him our mayor. Which in theory makes sense because it means that anybody who wants to show up to create the illusion that they were present for the event can just come along.



BIDEN: The presidential fill-in



THE EVENT WILL take place in the Pritzker Pavilion (named for the wealthy Chicago family whose members, if I recall correctly, were among the early presidential backers of Barack Obama’s opponent – Hillary R. Clinton).

Yet I don’t want any part of the park. Not because I don’t care. But because I think the actual oath ceremony is going to be such a mess. I don’t want to imagine how congested the crowds will get around Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue.

The rumor mill that had President Obama himself showing up to see his former chief of staff become mayor of his adopted home city washed out in a sense.

It is highly unlikely that Obama will be in Chicago on Monday.

WHAT DOES SEEM more likely is that Joe Biden will have to earn his federal paycheck on that date by coming to Chicago to “fill in” for the prez.

The Vice President is expected to be the official representative on hand when Emanuel takes his oath to uphold the laws of Chicago, along with the Constitution and all that other jazz.

EMANUEL: The new mayor



Which means that anyone who is going to get anywhere near to the place where either Biden or Emanuel will be is going to be someone who has gone through a Secret Service background check.

Now those checks aren’t the most complicated in the world. I have had to be subjected to them, from time to time during my duties as a reporter-type person. They basically want to know if anyone who’s going to get within the president’s sight is someone with a warrant out for their arrest or is someone involved with any kind of group that the president might consider “subversive.”

NOW THE SECRET Service isn’t about to conduct such a check on every single person who shows up at Millennium Park. So the bulk of us are going to be kept so far away from the action that I’d advise bringing a good pair of binoculars so you can see even a tiny bit of what happens.

Otherwise, the players in the city inauguration will appear to be little more than fleas. One might even mistake which one is which and start thinking that the Biden blip is our new mayor.

Let’s hope not. I can’t think of a more dreary image for our city. And keep in mind that I’m old enough to remember the days when Michael Bilandic was mayor.

I’d say I “vividly remember” those days, but somehow use of the word “vivid” in connection with the boring Bilandic just seems wrong. That was a man who truly had the personality fit to be a judge – the post to which he ultimately rose after his stint at City Hall was complete.

IT IS INTERESTING, to me at least, to see a bit of a federal presence being included in the city inauguration festivities. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also will be in Chicago for the ritual that will make Emanuel (in the minds of some politically parochial types) the Most Important Political Person on the Face of Planet Earth.

You know what I mean, those people who believe that running for something like president or senator is what you do if you don’t have what it takes to be “da mare.”

I don’t quite buy into that line of logic. But it will be nice to see someone like LaHood in Chicago. While he might be an Illinoisan who got picked for Obama’s cabinet because of his “local” ties, he is a Peoria native (and represented a central Illinois district in Congress). Perhaps we can persuade him to move to Chicago once his government service days are done.

But back to the mess that will be Monday.

UNLESS YOU’RE THE ultimate political V.I.P., you’re going to be so far away from the action that you won’t have a clue what is happening.

Let’s only hope that the weather on Monday (tentatively predicted to be sunny in the lower 50s) isn’t as ridiculously humid as what we have experienced the past couple of days.

Otherwise, we will have the potential for Millennium Park to turn into a sweaty, stinky pit of humanity that could create an aroma reminiscent of the old Union Stock Yards.

Not exactly the image we’d want to create of our fair city. And one I likely will miss by watching the actual event over someone’s television screen.

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Ya gotta love Judy

TOPINKA: No longer a political has-been

Every time I start to think that political partisanship is becoming too intense and that our society is doomed as a result, Judy Baar Topinka somehow opens her mouth and convinces me that maybe there is hope for us.

Her latest moment came Monday at mid-day when she joined the other Illinois constitutional officers in being sworn in to terms running through January 2015. It is now Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. She’s back on our political scene.

IN FACT, IT may well have been Topinka who made the most memorable scene at the inauguration ceremony, conducted on the basketball court of the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield.

First, she had her son, Joe, a major in the Army, administer the oath of office to her (no judges for this Judy). She got the chuckle when, at about 35 seconds into the oath, Judy cut him off by saying, “that’s getting awfully long.”

But I wouldn’t be commenting on Topinka if all she did was make a joke. She also used her address to make a serious point about political partisanship at a time when Democrats have a firm grasp on Illinois state government.

And no, Judy didn’t take a pot shot at Democrats. She included her GOP colleagues as well, claiming that the spirit of bipartisanship is one that has to be shared by government officials of both major political parties if anything meaningful is going to change.

TOPINKA – WHO HAS said during her time as Comptroller-elect that she would use her position that actually pays government bills to interfere with Democratic plans to borrow money if she did not think they were responsible – said everybody is to blame for the mess that is the state’s financial condition these days.

“Both parties have for a very, very long time helped dig this ditch,” she told the crowd gathered for inaugural festivities. “We’re all responsible. Since we all dug, it’s time that we got together to find the courage, the will and the civility to pull ourselves out of that ditch and make Illinois great again.”

You just know that the conservative ideologues of Illinois who plan to portray everything that happens at the Statehouse during the next two years as some sort of conspiracy by Chicago to undermine the “decent” people who live outside of the city were gnashing their teeth.

From the Republican News Watch



They don’t want to hear the honesty behind a statement that the GOP officials haven’t done a thing to alleviate the problem. These are the people who probably think the United Republican Fund is being super when they talk about targeting any Republican official who votes on Tuesday for a plan to raise the state income tax to help alleviate the state’s financial mess.

AS TOPINKA PUT it, “we need to put aside any petty bickering and partisan fights.” She also said, “it’s too easy to blame one (political) party, but it wouldn’t be true.”

After all, those people who backed William Brady’s gubernatorial campaign even though he never seriously addressed the need for more revenue to pay the state’s expenses (it’s pure fantasy to think that only budget cuts can balance the state’s budget) were doing little more than ignoring the issue – preferring to play partisan games of their own that would have harmed the state irrevocably.

Of course, the reason our state’s situation became so bad to begin with was we had a Democratic legislature determined to teach then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich who was really in charge, and a governor who was more than willing to behave in a spiteful manner.

Blame for our mess really does go around to everybody – no matter how much certain officials want to claim it’s, “the other guy’s fault.”

WHICH MEANS TOPINKA’S most controversial statement during her inaugural address (which lasted just over nine minutes) may well be that our state government has “good and honorable people” at its head.

I’d like to think she’s right. In fact, I suspect the only people who are going to have serious disagreement with anything Topinka said on Monday are the ones who rant about “RINOS” and whose sole complaint is that she didn’t share in the partisan rant that they would have desired from the woman who now is the highest-ranking Republican official in Illinois state government.

Personally, I don’t dispute Topinka’s credentials as a member of the Republican Party. This is a woman who once seriously believed that Phil Gramm should be president of the United States. I just wish we could get more officials who were willing to put aside the partisan labels from time to time. Which makes me encouraged by her rhetoric that she’s “not going away until” the state fixes its finances, joking at one point that she may someday be taking an oath of office from her infant grand-daughter, Alexandra.

“That should scare you, okay?” Topinka told the gathering. Actually, it doesn’t, not anywhere near as much as that campaign van that she referred to when she was sworn into office in 1995 – resulting in the “fart joke” that still gets remembered in some political quarters.

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A question for Gov. Quinn – What exactly constitutes “frugal,” but “not chintzy?”

A part of me is tempted to work my way down to Springfield on Jan. 10.

QUINN: What is "frugal?"



It’s not that I really have any desire to see the inaugural ceremonies to be held for the officials who won Illinois state government constitutional offices in the Nov. 2 elections. It is more that I would want to see what qualifies as “frugal,” but “not chintzy.”

THAT IS THE description that Gov. Pat Quinn used earlier this week to describe the ceremonies at which he will take the oath of office and become Illinois’ governor through 2015, along with Lt. Gov.-elect Sheila Simon, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (for the third time), Illinois secretary of state Jesse White (for the fourth time), Illinois Comptroller-elect Judy Baar Topinka and Illinois Treasurer-elect Dan Rutherford.

He’s trying to play into the theme that he won’t be wasting money on an elaborate ceremony and inaugural ball, particularly at a time when the state faces some serious financial problems of its own.

Not that I expect anybody to be swayed by this. His partisan critics are going to look for every little nitpicking detail that they can claim is too much – mainly because they don’t want him to have it.

And if he really does do things on the cheap, then he’s going to get bashed about for doing things in a third-rate manner.

IT WOULD NOT shock me to learn that Quinn tries to create the appearance of scaling things back. This is the guy who for many years used to boast of staying at Motel 6 hotels whenever he traveled on government business. (And yes, I know the stories about how his famous Motel 6 club card was long expired and good for nothing, so don’t feel the need to reiterate them to me).



TOPINKA: Will she top herself?



I noticed on the website created to disseminate information about the upcoming Inaugural that it boasts of not using any taxpayer funds, and that the web design itself was donated.

Inaugural Committee officials themselves will only say they’re seeking private donations to come up with money to pay for the festivities that will take over the Capitol Complex and downtown Springfield for a couple of days.

But I also noticed that the basic schedule of events for the 2011 Inaugural is the same as in past years – an early-morning church service at First Presbyterian Church in Springfield (located across the street from the governor’s mansion and one block from the Capitol building), an open house at the Executive Mansion and other state offices during the afternoon and an inaugural ball – which usually just serves to show that Illinois’ government officials don’t have any sense of rhythm.

THERE ALSO IS the “big event,” the inaugural ceremony in mid-day during which the oaths of office are administered at the Prairie Capital Convention Center – which can be converted into an arena seating just over 5,000 people.

Even those ceremonies don’t amount to much, because it is rare that our officials produce some sort of inspiring rhetoric from the newly-sworn-in public officials.

My knowledge of Illinois’ inaugurals comes about mostly from the fact that I was on hand for the events in 1995 and 1999. Trust me when I say that anybody who expects an event in Springfield that will match the majesty of what took place Jan. 20, 2009 in Washington when Barack Obama became president will be seriously disappointed.

Personally, the moments I most remember are (from 1999) when new Gov. George Ryan had his Democratic opponent, Glenn Poshard, stand up in the packed arena, and the crowd gave him an ovation, and (from 1995) when then-Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka gave her inaugural address and managed to include a “fart joke” that left the crowd silenced.

IT DEFINITELY PUT a damper on what otherwise was a glorious moment of triumph for the Republicans (that was the election cycle where they won every single statewide office, and also took the entire Legislature – beginning a two-year period of domination of Illinois state government).

My big question about Inauguration ’11 is, Will Judy manage to top that moment when it comes to shocking the crowd of government geeks that wants to see the new officials take office.

For those who would want a touching moment, I also remember when soul singer Lou Rawls performed at the 1995 event (the one that saw Republicans begin a two-year period of domination of state government) and altered the lyrics to “Wind Beneath My Wings” to tell then-First Lady Brenda Edgar that she was "the wind" beneath Gov. Jim’s "wings."

For those who are focused on finances, I’m not sure how any of this would have been impacted. In fact, I have always felt that Illinois conducted fairly low-key inaugural ceremonies.

EXCEPT FOR THE fact that we won’t get a “first dance” by the first couple (Quinn is divorced), I’m not sure how much more low-key the event could get.

Unless they decide to skimp on the entertainment at the ball. Simon’s all-female bluegrass band, Loose Gravel, could perform, with a featured solo by Topinka on her accordion.

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White Sox mascot to help represent Illinois in D.C. inaugural parade

Tourists to the District of Columbia and residents of the capital city are going to get a garish sight when they happen to catch a glimpse of the float included in the inaugural parade that is meant to represent Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois.

To be pulled by a John Deere-brand tractor (the company is based in Moline, Ill.), the float will have a display meant to represent what the Land of Lincoln is all about.

BUT INSTEAD OF having some young girl in a tiara and sash that declares her to be Miss Illinois something-or-other waving her hand, one of the things meant to represent us will be a fuzzy green blob (that’s the best way I can think to describe it) waving its left paw to the masses gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue.

I can’t help but wonder what all those people who don’t have a direct tie to the South Side will think of the sight.

Will some think that we’ve gone goofy in Illinois and/or Chicago? Perhaps they’ll think some creature from the California float snuck onto the Illinois float to try to take over, or that Rod Blagojevich wanted to be a part of the day’s festivities, but had to put on a silly costume in order to sneak in because nobody would let him in as himself?

Because what those people will really be seeing, is Southpaw.

FOR THOSE OF you who have no clue who Southpaw is, the character is the official mascot of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. The guy who wears the costume at White Sox games and at public appearances on behalf of the team is now in the District of Columbia, waiting for his participation in the inaugural parade.

The White Sox (whom Obama has often said are his rooting choice for a professional baseball team) approved inclusion of their mascot on the Illinois float – probably with delusions that it would result in lots of national publicity for the ball club spinning about in their collective head.

Now there are a couple of professional sports franchises who have costumed mascot characters that are a significant part of the teams’ public character. Just about any fan of professional sports in this country knows what the Philly Phanatic is.

In fact, there’s always “The Famous Chicken,” who has become bigger than his original ball club, the San Diego Padres (who now employ a giant costumed missionary named “Friar” to dance around in between innings).

THEN, THERE ARE teams like the White Sox with “Southpaw,” a character created a couple of years ago out of hope that he could help enhance the child-appeal of the ballpark atmosphere at U.S. Cellular Field. Nobody outside of the hardcore fandom has a clue what it is supposed to be.

I don’t know how successful Southpaw has been in trying to gain the love and respect of White Sox fans, or of Chicagoans in general. There are many in our city who don’t have a clue as to his existence. He certainly isn’t beloved.

For every kid who gets a kick out of a giant ball of green fuzz shaking their hand in between innings, there are several (slightly inebriated) adults who find his presence irritating – usually because they think they have to have an attitude that if something didn’t exist in the ball park when they were kids, it must be bad.

In short, Southpaw certainly isn’t a figure that I think of as universally representing our city or state.

I CAN’T HELP but wonder why Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t send the mascot of his other professional sports team in this city – Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls would likely have had greater recognition upon being seen by the masses from around the nation. It would also seem to work better, since Obama himself has indicated that while he likes watching the White Sox, basketball seems to be his preferred sport.

So what will the nation think of Southpaw when he gets his national introduction on Tuesday? Will they think he’s cute? Or will they wonder what “Oscar the Grouch” is doing wearing a White Sox uniform?

There is one plus. At least the White Sox no longer have their dueling mascots from the 1980s.

Just think of how ridiculous people would think Illinois is if they were to see the sight of Ribbie and Roobarb engaging in slapstick while roaring down Pennsylvania Avenue on their motorbikes?

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EDITOR’S NOTES: There will be moments of sophistication and high culture as part of the Inauguration festivities on Tuesday. Then, there will also be moments such as those (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090115&content_id=3745736&vkey=news_cws&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws) involving Southpaw.

Jesse White will go from being the guy whose bureaucratic action stalled Roland Burris (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/obama_inauguration/chi-obama-parade-09-dec09,0,2963946.story) from becoming senator for one week to being the namesake of the tumbling team that also will represent Illinois in the parade.

Moline-based John Deere will have dealerships in Pennsylvania and Maryland provide the tractors that will pull floats (http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_11482546) in the inaugural parade.

This (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/community/southpaw.jsp) is Southpaw.

A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Cardinals’ win reminiscent of ‘47 champs

I can’t help but notice the rhetorical hype used in sports stories all weekend reporting the fact that that Arizona Cardinals football team managed Saturday to win their first home field “playoff” game since 1947.

What it really means is that the Cardinals have been so awful during their time in the greater Phoenix area that this is their first playoff victory at home ever. For that 1947 game constantly referred to wasn’t really a playoff game.

IT WAS A National Football League championship game when the Cardinals franchise (one of the oldest in the NFL) won its only league title ever. And those were back in the days when the White Sox weren’t the only team that “marketed” itself as representing Chicago’s South Side.

It was Dec. 28, 1947, when the Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles 28-21, with Cardinals players wearing tennis shoes to help them cope with the frozen and tattered turf of Comiskey Park – the same site that now provides parking for White Sox fans attending games at U.S. Cellular Field.

All four Cardinals touchdowns came on long runs of 44, 70, 70 and 75 yards.

I wonder at times if people remember that Chicago used to be a two-team town in the NFL, or if they think it is the natural order of things for us to get “stupid” for the Bears. The Cardinals were one of the league’s original teams and were in Chicago for four decades.

OF COURSE, DURING that time span, they only won that one championship in 1947. They’re the football equivalent of the St. Louis Browns, the major league baseball team whose only league title came in 1944 during the Second World War. Only the Cardinals never employed the equivalent of a dwarf or a one-armed outfielder, like the Browns did.

Compared to the nine championships the Chicago Bears took during those same years, it was no wonder that the Cardinals suffered from attendance deficits that caused their owners to eventually look to other cities – St. Louis, then the Phoenix area.

Not that the old owners ever gave up the team. The Bidwell family that continues to own Sportsmans’ Park ran the team back in that championship year of ’47, and still has the football team to this day, where it plays in a new stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the same city where the White Sox plan to shift their spring training operations for future years.

What else was noteworthy about the news in recent days?

WHO’S PLAYING WHAT GAME WITH RACE?: Is the U.S. Senate really in the hands of a man who thinks black people are unelectable? That is the impression the Chicago Sun-Times tried to create with its Sunday paper editions illustrated with a doctored photograph of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., holding up a list of names, with those of black people crossed out.

Or is Gov. Rod Blagojevich giving reporter-types an overly selective interpretation of the conversations the two men had last week about what (if anything) Blagojevich should do to try to fill the Senate vacancy created by Barack Obama’s rise to president.

The odd part is that I have no problem believing both interpretations, even though Reid used a "Meet the Press" appearance Sunday to backpedal from such statements. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character for Blagojevich to twist the conversation the two had by telephone into a tall tale meant to make him appear sympathetic. Ever since the criminal complaint issued nearly a month ago, Rod needs all the “love” he can find.

Yet the fact that some would automatically look at a list of Illinois political people and presume the Anglos on the list are more appealing to the state’s electorate is not out of character. It is evidence that we as a society are not yet at the point where race ceases to be a factor – despite those who want to believe the election of Obama is the end of the civil rights battle.

REPLACING THE REPLACEMENT SYSTEM: Rep.-elect Debbie D. Halvorson, D-Ill., is leaving the Illinois Senate, and the local party bigwigs in the south suburbs down to Kankakee will gather Monday to pick her legislative replacement.

Among those in the running for the post in Springfield are Halvorson’s former chief of staff and a member of the Will County board. This replacement is about as close as we will come to filling any political vacancies these days.

We’re still waiting for dates to be scheduled for special elections to pick a replacement for Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who became President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff. Then, there’s always the need for a replacement for Obama himself in the U.S. Senate. According to Illinois law, the governor addresses those issues.

But Rod Blagojevich still has people worked up with his attempt to replace Obama, and I don’t know how would-be Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., will actually be received in Washington when he shows up this week. The only thing I know for sure is that the public will have another outcry of disgust if Blagojevich proceeds with his duties to schedule election dates. So we’re going to have quite a few vacancies in this state for some time.

“SOUTH SIDE” CELEBRATION FOR D.C. EVENT: The banquet hall that has been the site of many wedding receptions and other public events will be the site for celebration for those who want to bask in the glow of Barack Obama becoming president, yet are too cheap to travel to Washington for the inauguration.

Coordinators of the Jan. 20 evening event at the Alsip-based Condesa del Mar say they expect about 1,000 people to show up for their Chicago-area Inauguration Night party.

Don’t expect to be able to just wander in off the street. Tickets are being sold, with the cheapest “seats” going for $90. And for that price, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to see anything on the video screens being erected that are meant to give people a sense of what is happening in Washington while they’re partying (http://www.obamachicagoball.com/) in suburban Chicago.

And yes, there will be vendors peddling all the Obama-related merchandise one could want – for a fee.

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