The Cesspool that is Illinois Politics

[Ugnmoose]

I think the referenced article offers some interesting insight into the depth of political corruption in Chicago and Illinois. We don't yet know what the current trial of Tony Rezko and pals will have on the Obama campaign. However, there is more than enough here to make great fodder for the McCain team. Line this up with the Rev Wright association and you have the makings of a Swift Boat campaign that will make the 2004 election look like kids play. For those of you who are new to politics, and I suspect from reading this board that many are, this is going to be a sobering wake up call on just how dirty political campaigns can get. If you think what you have seen so far is bad - brother you ain't seen nothin yet!

http://www.countercurrents.org/pringle070408.htm

(snip)

By now, everybody following the case knows the names of the “Co-Schemers” and “Individuals”, and the Republicans can use the court filings as a roadmap for their plan of attack on Obama. In fact, they are probably editing their talking points for cable news shows as we speak. They no doubt already have video clips in the can of every failed low-income housing project in Chicago connected to Obama to splash across the airwaves the minute he is nominated.

[anonymous171]

1. All he has to do is talk about how much worse "Washington Politics" are

Iraq War, Patriot Act, Kyle-LIEberman, etc. It would actually be a really interesting speech.

[Submariner]

3. Or the Romney mandatory health insurance scam here in MA

And I bet my state's pols can out-corrupt IL state pols in a heartbeat.

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. And this is why I refused to take money for my community activism

It's a trap.

[cooolandrew]

4. I think we've seen corrpution in various areas of the country. Barack did good things in ilinois.

[democrattotheend]

5. I'm tired of letting the Republican attack machine dictate who we nominate

We did that in 2004. We got skittish about Dean, in part because Republicans were salivating about running against him, and we went with the supposedly safe choice. We went with the candidate who had the resume and the military credentials that were supposed to enable him to withstand Republican fear-mongering, and it didn't work. Kerry is a decorated war veteran and he lost 85-15 to a draft dodger among people who considered terrorism and national security to be their most important issue.

It would really be a stretch to try to tie every failed low-income housing project in Chicago to Obama, especially since Obama has a track record of fighting for people in low income housing as a community organizer. There are tons of things like that that you could just as speciously link to McCain, and a hell of a lot more that you could tie to Clinton. Neither McCain nor Obama is perfect on ethics, but as politicians go, they both have pretty good ethics records, and maybe I am naive, but I have some optimism that a campaign between the two of them could actually be more above-board than the average campaign, since they both have a lot to lose if their reputations are tarnished and people see them as politics as usual.