Will Obama Campaign For Chicago Mob Linked Alexi Giannoulis?

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune reports:

Now that the president's friend and basketball buddy Alexi Giannoulias is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, here's the thing:

Will Barack Obama feed Giannoulias the ball and do the hard work setting picks for him, or will the president stay out of the gym, cool, detached, without breaking a sweat over Illinois politics?

Obama was burned by campaigning in Massachusetts last month, where the state went from deep blue to red, the election of Republican Scott Brown an embarrassment to Obama and a referendum on the president's policies.

Complicating things for the president in Illinois is that Giannoulias was battered by primary opponent David Hoffman, who used the Giannoulias family's Broadway Bank — and its loans to mob figures and a convicted influence peddler — in a series of devastating TV spots.

That influence peddler is none other than Obama's own real estate fairy, Tony Rezko.

The Republicans already have a hard hitting ad against Chicago Mob linked banker Giannoulias. Here's a flashback of Obama's rousing endorsement of the mafia linked banker.