Free Republic

Will Barack Obama's presidential candidacy serve his state and city by finally drawing national attention to the sleazy and corrupt politics of Illinois and Chicago? It is all about context. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate's politics were born in Chicago. Yet he is presented to the nation as not truly being of this place, as if he floats just above the political corruption here, uninfected, untouched by the stain of it or by any sin of commission or omission. It is all so very mystical. Perhaps viewing Obama as a Chicago political creature would conflict with the established national media...

Broadway Baby was not mentioned during the Democratic infighting in Pennsylvania. But Broadway Baby—once a chic children's boutique in Manhattan's Upper West Side—is the future, if Barack Obama is the presidential candidate in the fall. This story involves two Chicagoans, former Weather Underground terrorist leaders Bernardine Dohrn and her husband, William Ayers, both Obama supporters who blessed his initial foray into politics. Last week, the unrepentant Ayers became a flash point in Obama's debate with Hillary Clinton. "And what they [Weather Underground] did was set bombs and in some instances people died," said Clinton, sweetly playing the white terrorist card....

Of all the things that special federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said about the conviction of top vice presidential aide Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Tuesday, there was one sentence that intrigued me. My ears perked up when I heard him say these eight simple words at his televised news conference. "We're all going back to our day jobs," Fitzgerald said. The national media will most likely ignore these eight words, since these don't have much to do with political gas-bagging, the official sport of Washington. Republicans are upset about the perjury prosecution of Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief...

Each stirred up some frenzy at first. The beleaguered French peasantry and the largely illiterate and brutal nobles believed the teenage Joan to be the savior of France. She led them to many stirring victories against the English. Things were quite good, until that unfortunate burning at the stake business. In Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the bipartisan political combine that runs things in the state also seeks a savior. In order to perpetuate themselves, they must play both sides to make sure. And though they've burned other candidates, they'd never toast an accordion player as accomplished as Topinka.

"I am a Christian.... So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. "That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived." Thus, U.S. Senate candidate for Illinois Barack Obama in a campaign contribution by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani. Obama's...

Barack Obama with Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and other leaders at a 1,500 person rally for the Senator at Liberty Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side on Tuesday, March 9th. Photo by David Katz/Obama forIllinois)   Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at Liberty Baptist Church. (David Katz/Obama forIllinois) OPINION -- "I am a Christian.… So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people....

"The issues don't really matter," says one party fund-raiser. "This guy is the dream candidate." The Economist, July 15 With the June 25 announcement by conservative Republican Jack Ryan that he was dropping out of the U.S. Senate race for Illinois, and legendary Chicago Bears tight end/coach Mike Ditka's July 14 announcement that he would not serve as the sacrificial lamb of the corrupt, Illinois Republican Party leadership, the seat falls to Democrat candidate Barack Obama virtually by default. Meanwhile, in what is taking on the airs of a coronation, Obama has been chosen (while Hillary Clinton has been snubbed)...

<p>NEW YORK -- Final negotiations are underway IllinoisLeader.com’s columnist and syndicated talk show host Kevin McCullough to begin a weekly political radio talk show broadcast to eighteen major Illinois radio markets.</p> <p>“I was approached by a group of investors to consult them on finding a person who could do a four hour weekly radio show in Illinois,” McCullough said via phone today from New York. “They decided that I would be the best person for the job.”</p>