Chicago politics and the myth of Barack Obama

One of the most fascinating phenomena of the recently-concluded presidential campaign was the emergence of a man who owed his entire political being to Chicago's notorious political machine as some sort of reformer. The utter failure of the media to vet Barack Obama- even to take as close a look as it might have at his relationship with the infamous Tony Rezko- was what enabled this phenomenon, of course. But it remains one of the truly amazing spectacles of modern political history.

Nobody is suggesting, of course, that P-EOTUS is in any way involved in the Rod Blagojavich embarrassment in any way other than having been the latest occupant of the Senate seat the soon-to-be-resigned-or-impeached Illinois governor metaphorically put on EBay. But the fact remains that the fastidious reformer the nation has been led to believe it elected to the White House last month is a myth.

Yet they do things differently in Chicago (and in Illinois generally) than they do them elsewhere, and we would do well to mark the difference. That difference, after all, is a cloud that cannot help but hang over an administration whose leader is a creature of a political culture that... well, marches to a different drummer.

David Frum's piece in The Week makes the point quite well.

HT: Real Clear Politics