Media Ignored or Praised Chicago Politics

News that until this week Obama’s Senate seat was up for auction to the highest bidder has focused the nation on the perennially corrupt Chicago political machine.

But before the election the national media dutifully denied  voters any review of the rich history of dirty politics in Obama’s home town and political indoctrination center.

The Media anointed candidate won the Presidency and Time Magazine was still caught up in the euphoria a few days later when it published a piece by Amy Sullivan called “How the Chicago way Helped Obama.”

Below are some choice excerpts.  Of course news that until this week  Governor Blagovech was offering Obama’s Senate seat up for auction to the highest bidder makes these excerpts even more laughable than when they were written.

…since Barack Obama’s election, conservatives have been busy warning that…dozens of Chicago advisers, officials and fundraisers have helped grease Obama’s ascent from community organizer to President-elect.

John McCain trotted out a similar attack against Obama in the last few months of the campaign…But [it] didn’t resonate with voters.

The jab was based on an outdated caricature of Chicago…

What McCain and fellow Republicans didn’t (and probably still don’t) understand is that being from Chicago is now an asset for a presidential candidate, not a liability.

It’s possible, due to the intense efforts of the national media to ensure that most Americans were not informed of Obama’s political heritage, that being from Chicago might indeed have been an asset.  Candidate Obama could benefit from the services of a corrupt political machine, while the media swaddled his naive, young supporters in emotional slogans, masking the stench.

The problem with trying to taint Obama with the label of “Chicago politics” is that most Americans no longer make the association with corruption.

Since Obama’s media fans understood that “most Americans”  know only what the networks and newspapers decide they should know, they created a fumigated, political bio of Barack Obama deleting any references to corruption in Chicago.

These days Chicago is known for blending working-class kitsch…with cosmopolitan shopping and restaurants on Michigan Avenue. Its graceful mix of cutting-edge, environmentally conscious modern architecture and classic parks and buildings has actually given it a reputation as a model of a 21st-century metropolis.

Obviously, appealing buildings and parks do not cleanse corrupt, local politicians.  But, in a typical Big Media diversion, the author inserted her emotional reaction to the city’s ambiance as if it were somehow relevant.

After the Blagovech revelations, this final excerpt is so preposterous it stands alone with no need for further comment.

…for now, Republicans might need to look for a new line of attack. With Obama on his way to the White House, the [Chicago bred] Axelrod-Emanuel-Podesta trio by his side and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin the new center of influence in the U.S. Senate, Chicago Democrat appears to be a winning label.