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Obama avoids stain of Chicago's political scandals
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Dec 12, 2008 11:25am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Wednesday, December 10, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer Sharon Cohen, Ap National Writer – Wed Dec 10, 7:09 pm ET
CHICAGO – On the campaign trail, Barack Obama liked to boast that he was a tough survivor of the bare-knuckled world of Chicago politics. But the president-elect also has steered clear of most of its scandals, navigating a careful middle ground that has left him relatively unscathed in a city synonymous with corruption.
Obama's awkward link to the seamier side of Chicago politics was thrust into the spotlight Tuesday when federal prosecutors charged Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich with trying to auction off the president-elect's vacant Senate seat.
There was nothing in the 76-page FBI affidavit to suggest Obama had done anything wrong, and on Wednesday, he called on Blagojevich to resign. But this latest in a series of Illinois political scandals also raised questions about whether it's possible to avoid completely the taint of patronage and payoffs that are so common here.
Obama has managed to remain mostly — but not entirely — untarnished by local political corruption. Some analysts and former legislative colleagues cite various reasons: his skill, brains and character, his reform-minded base and his path to power, which did not involve climbing through the ranks of the Chicago Democratic Machine.
"Rather than being above the fray, I think he has sidestepped the fray," said Don Rose, a longtime political strategist. "It's a tightrope-walking skill."
During the presidential race, Sen. John McCain tried to link Obama to the city's tawdry history. In a commercial, he said Obama was "born of the corrupt Chicago political machine" — even though the president-elect has never been part of the ward-and-precinct politics that have defined the machine. The ad also cited Blagojevich among Obama's "friends." |
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