http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/obamas_pal_eric_whitaker_his_t.html
Obama’s pal Eric Whitaker, his Tony Rezko tie
By
Lynn Sweet
on October 28, 2008
With the prospects of Barack Obama winning the White House pretty good, the Sun-Times Watchdog team took a look in the Tuesday paper about a potential Obama administration appointee, pal Eric Whitaker.
By the Sun-Times Watchdog team
Dr. Eric Whitaker and Sen. Barack Obama go way back.
Their friendship began when they were graduate students at Harvard University. Now, Whitaker is one of Obama’s closest advisers.
Whitaker, 43, of Chicago, often travels with the presidential hopeful on the campaign trail and has vacationed with him in Hawaii. There’s talk Whitaker could be in line for a federal appointment if Obama becomes president.
Five years ago, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, gave a “glowing’’ reference for Whitaker to Tony Rezko, the now-convicted political fixer who helped Gov. Blagojevich find people to run state agencies. Blagojevich hired Whitaker to be the state’s public health director.
(snip)
November 26th, 2009
Dr. Eric and Cheryl Whitaker: Chicago Doctors at Obama’s State Dinner
Dr. Eric Whitaker specializes in internal medicine and is currently a University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine executive. Dr. Whitaker was the former head of the Illinois Public Health Department and had earned a master’s in public health at Harvard where he had first met the future president.
Why did the Whitakers get invited to the State Dinner?
Dr. Eric Whitaker took over Michelle Obama’s grand idea of the Urban Health Initiative. This basic premise of the UHI is to insure more Americans and drive down costs. Urban Health Initiative is about getting patients the right treatment at the appropriate location. The ER will no longer be the defacto location for the non-insured.
(snip)
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) waves to spectators as he walks down the first fairway with Dr. Eric Whitaker at Farm Neck Golf Course August 24, 2009 in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, Massacusetts. This is U.S. President Barack Obama’s first full day of his family’s week-long vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Eric_Whitaker
Eric Whitaker
bump that
You beat me to it.
I see we didn’t just pay for Whitaker’s trip to Hawaii but to Martha’s Vineyard as well. And to top it off, he’ll claim it on his expense account and then deduct it in April as a business expense to cover all bases.