Obama and Mayor Daley:Chicago Way Politics

The Chicago Reader reports:

Daley doesn’t encourage discussion—he stifles it. He loathes criticism and disparages debate. He takes credit for the good and shucks responsibility for the bad. Just a few weeks ago I heard an alderman in an unguarded moment tell his northwest-side constituents what happens to bills that don’t come out of the mayor’s office: If Daley doesn’t like a bill, he kills it. If he likes it, he rewrites it and claims it as his own.

As for Chicago in 2008 being a hospitable time for organizers “like the young Barack Obama,” the truth is that Daley’s pretty well destroyed community organizing in Chicago. Many of the fiercest groups have either disap­peared or been co-opted—they pull their punches because, like the aldermen, they don’t want to get on the mayor’s bad side. It took activists years to get the smoking ban passed over Daley’s opposition, and even then the mayor forced them into water­ing it down. Despite backing from Cardinal George and would-be independent alder­men, activists still can’t get an afford­able housing ordinance through the City Council, though they’ve been trying for more than a decade. There used to be several vigilant budget watchdog groups in Chicago, with the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group leading the pack. Now there are none.

Should Obama go along with all this? Well, look at it from his perspective. He first came to town in the mid-80s, working as a community activist for three years. When he returned in the early 90s, just out of law school, he was bright, young, and incredibly ambitious, and the first thing he learned—the first thing any ambitious young wannabe politician learns around here—is that there’s no future in Chicago for anyone who defies Mayor Daley.

The best you can do is discreetly look the other way. You might speak out occasionally against the more blatant examples of corrup­­tion—but only if reporters force you to. Other­wise you pretend not to notice. And it goes without saying that you enthusiastically endorse the mayor’s reelection—or his Olympic plans.

For Obama, kissing the mayor’s ring is like putting that flag pin on his lapel. It’s part of the game he’s had to play to get elected. It got him to the U.S. Senate. And if he makes it all the way to the White House, it probably will have been worth it.

You'll want to read this whole article.Does a junior U.S. Senator have more power than Mayor Daley.No.Obama works for Mayor Daley.Kind of a disturbing thing.