The cameras focused on a tearful Jesse Jackson, and the reporters seemed more interested in talking to Spike Lee, Brad Pitt and Oprah. But at Chicago’s Grant Park, when President-elect Barack Obama declared “Change has come to America,” there was another face in the crowd that Rhode Islanders would have recognized. Former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, the Republican-turned-independent who campaigned for Obama, was about 20 feet from the side of the stage. Chafee and his wife, Stephanie, waved to Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, and his wife and two children. The Robinsons, who were on stage with Obama, used to...