Flashback: Obama's Support for Rod Blagojevich

Public Affairs has this blast from the past from 2002:

State Senator Barack Obama (D-Chicago): …right now, my main focus is to make sure that we elect Rod Blagojevich as Governor, we—

Jeff Berkowitz: You working hard for Rod?

Barack Obama: You betcha.

Jeff Berkowitz: Hot Rod?

Barack Obama: That’s exactly right. You know, I think that having a Democratic Governor will make a big difference. I think that I am working hard to get a Democratic [state] senate and Emil Jones President, replacing [Republican Senate President] Pate Philip and once all that clears out in November, then I think we’ll be able to make some good decisions about the [U. S.] Senate race.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you want to see a Democratic State Senate, a Democratic State House, a Democratic Governor—

Barack Obama: I am a Democrat.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is that balanced? And I thought we wanted a fair and balanced approach to things.

Barack Obama: I am a Democrat.

Jeff Berkowitz: Card-carrying Democrat?

Barack Obama: Card-carrying Democrat. I really believe that the core Democratic philosophy is one that is—you know—really helps working people, and hopefully you know, we’ll be able to make sure that we carry out a mandate in this next election in November [2002].

Obama's definition of a post-partisan world is something like Chicago where the entire debate is Democrats arguing about how much more government we are supposed to get with higher taxes.