“Just like he was “compelled” to mention that he’d be rooting for the Steelers since the owner “made sizable contributions” to his campaign.”
Yep, The Chicago Way in a nutshell. Blago’s only mistake was being so blatant about trading political favors for cash. Obama’s way more smooth. In the guise of joking around, he signals that he’s paying attention to whom makes donations and that his behavior (rooting for Steelers) is amenable to influence depending on the size of the contribution. This again is a situation where nothing “compelled” him to say anything about anybody’s political contributions, much less their size. Yet he chose to do so. Now that’s disciplined message-setting!
Speaking of that, did you hear something last night or this morning about Obama offering a Republican a job (doing?) and part of the package deal was he had to give his current position to a Dem? My husband heard it on our news but I haven’t found an article, yet.