DISQUS

Ghost · 1 year ago

Is this the Same GOP who just had a texas Vendor selling racist buttons asking if Obama is elected will we still call it the White House? before the worry abour Rod they might want to consider their own.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Obviously the Trib is growing more desperate for new subscribers by the day.

Snidely Whiplash · 1 year ago

I still can't get over this. Someone moves to Illinois 20 or 25 years ago, runs for office, becomes Dem nominee for President, so everyone here should support his candidacy simply because "he's from Chicago." Even the formerly conservative Tribune is now on this silly bandwagon.

If crazy Aunt Sally ran for president, shouldn't we all vote for her, because, hey, she's from Illinois, isn't she? Simply mind boggling!

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

Ghost, the Texas GOP has banned that vendor and essentially put him out of business. Plus, that's Texas, not Illinois.

Take a breath.

Squideshi · 1 year ago

Does this mean that the Tribune is also going to file campaign finance disclosure reports with the Federal Elections Commission?

Wumpus · 1 year ago

Ghost - Thursday, Jun 19, 08 @ 11:05 am:

Is this the Same GOP who just had a texas Vendor selling racist buttons asking if Obama is elected will we still call it the White House? before the worry abour Rod they might want to consider their own.

What Rich said!

Free Hat!

fedup dem · 1 year ago

Rick, I'm not so sure what you said about Col. McCormick is totally accurate. He hated federal deficit spending, so it would be hard to se him support the current administration in that regard, much less a candidate (John McCain) who in effect promises more of the same.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

Rich. My name is Rich. Rick is that other guy.

dupage progressive · 1 year ago

Interesting about the Dem. Governors rallying around BO -- I guess they had to.
In O'Malley's case, seems to me he was full-force behind Clinton & rallied all sorts of folks in maryland to back her.
In fact, I just googled him & he was named Hillary's campaign chairman in maryland, so he better get himself to chicago to make nice-nice...

He's a young, up & coming governor from Maryland who is talked about for bigger & better things down the road... (although perhaps he made a big mistake backing hillary in such a big way).
He was a very young mayor of baltimore & then became governor recently -- a pretty good guy.

Maggie · 1 year ago

Thanks for the info. I just canceled my Tribune.

reasonable 1 · 1 year ago

They're obviously trying to increase sales, but is the Obama campaign ok with this?

paddyrollingstone · 1 year ago

Martin O'Malley is a pretty sharp guy. He is someone to be on the lookout for on the national level someday.

Steve · 1 year ago

We wonder if the Chicago Tribune is violating McCain-Feingold? Anyway,what better proof than this that the Trib is a partisan supporter of Obama? No word yet from former Trib reporter David Axelrod on this story.

wordslinger · 1 year ago

Medill and the Trib were instrumental in founding the GOP and in elevating Lincoln. Col. McCormick was many things, including bedrock, isolationist, anti-New Deal, Midwestern GOP. When the Trib called on Nixon to resign, he knew he was done.

Besides the politics, what about the modern era's supposed objective journalism? Are they back to the 19th Century openly partisan model? Gnashing of teeth in the newsroom, I assure you.

Bill · 1 year ago

I'd rather just buy my Obama shirt and not support the Scabune. I hear that they are going broke. What goes around comes around.

wordslinger · 1 year ago

How the Blago issue plays out will be quite revealing. If he's not there, it's a major smackdown by Obama. No matter how it's spun, governors can find time in their schedules to share the podium and tv cameras with their wildly popular favorite son presidential candidate.

The Illinois GOP might ask some pointed questions of its GA members and their current relationships with the governor.

phocion · 1 year ago

Tribune in the tank for Obama? Naaah. I mean, just look at their utterly objective, unbiased, unflattering coverage of Senator Obama for the past 13 years.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

phocion, try to be a little fair. The Trib wrote extensively about the Rezko lot next to Obama's house.

phocion · 1 year ago

Rich, please..."extensively?" A story about the house, with John Kass following up (and Zorn defending) is hardly extensive. Especially in light of how brutal the Tribune is to any of Obama's opponents - and considering the local paper completely ignored Rev. Wright until national media forced the Trib to mention it. If you can really say with a straight face that the Tribune staff (minus Kass) hasn't absolutely been bitten in the neck by Obama, you're much more observant than me. I stand by my earlier snarky observation.

Willie Stark · 1 year ago

Wow. Some person, probably an independent vendor who gets some kind of commission, has the difficult task of trying to sell Trib subscriptions in the present environment of declining interest in newspapers, and decides s/he may have better luck if s/he offers a t-shirt with Obama's name on it because he's a popular guy and people don't have much interest in t-shirts with Trib on it. Suddenly, it's a grand conspiracy by the Trib to promote Obama's candidacy. What a joke. And, are you so sure that the picture is even genuine? Not to question the integrity of an august publication like the National Review, certainly.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

The pic didn't come from the National Review.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

phocion, you were here recently making claims about that bogus Michelle tape, so I doubt any coverage by any outlet that isn't far to the ultra-right is going to satisfy you.

It has been my experience over 18 years that partisans see what they want to see and remember what they want to remember. What you may consider "good, hard-hitting" reporting, others might consider lunatic fringe goofiness.

Anon · 1 year ago

"Rich. My name is Rich. Rick is that other guy."

But both you and Rick stick your neck out for no man, right?

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

lol. Wrong Rick.

piper · 1 year ago

The questions posed by the Illinois Republican Party are quite interesting.

IMHO, they provide Obama an opportunity to disconnect completely himself from Blagojevich, should he choose to respond to them. He might even rebuke the Governor.

We'll see..............

phocion · 1 year ago

Er, no I made no such claims about the authenticity of such tapes. I did allude to the tapes being alleged to exist, which is a truism. As have the Tribune and Sun-Times, I may add. I'm not a right-winger at all. I just find the media's fawning over Obama to be inappropriate.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

===I made no such claims about the authenticity of such tapes. I did allude to the tapes being alleged to exist===

And you wrote the other day...


===even if the alleged “Michelle tape” is the October Surprise this year.===

I read that differently than you, apparently.

phocion · 1 year ago

You did read it differently than my intended message, which was full of qualifiers, and was a throwaway reference to a goofy internet rumor that everyone had already heard about.

VanillaMan · 1 year ago

Regarding the Obama t-shirt story; someone isn't thinking, but someone else in charge will start to think and do something before this day is through. That is - if the story is true.

Tying Obama to Blagojevich is a rudimentary political strategy. And why not? Obama, and Blagojevich both have long political ties to Tony Rezko, Chicago political circles and winning Illinois elections. Emanuel already told us that he and Barack met with then-US Rep Blagojevich in bull sessions to help him become governor. Why should we allow Obama to go unquestioned when his governor and their money-buddy-Rezko end up in hot water?

Obama is running on his judgement since he has no experience, remember? So, what kind of judgement does his dealings with Blagojevich and Rezko show us about Barack Obama?

New politics? From Chicago? Since when Mr. Obama? Oh, and I love how you will be the first presidential candidate since 1973 to go unaccountable regarding your presidential financing? How Nixonian of you!

Chicago's American · 1 year ago

Wordslinger: I highly doubt that Nixon worried about what the Chicago Tribune had to say about him or that that was instumental or even incremental in his decision to resign.

Lynn S. · 1 year ago

I want to know when that vendor is coming here to Champaign so I can get a cheap subscription to the Trib and a few of those Obama shirts!!

Eric Zorn · 1 year ago

I'm just now catching up on this. And without even checking with anyone I can pretty well assure you that if this story is true (unless I'm missing something there is one source, one witness, "Leo" and a partial image of a shirt that looks like it might spell out "Obama") it was not a company authorized promotion. There is no history or tradition at the Tribune or any American newspaper that I'm aware of of using partisan political souvenirs as subscription incentives, and if you thought about it for five seconds you'd realize why. But even if somehow I'm wrong about that and this WAS an official promotion, sanctioned from on high, that wouldn't have anything to do with the reporters, editors and columnists who are writing about the campaign. Nor would it influence the Tribune's editorial positions or endorsements which, as some have noted, tend to run Republican.

wordslinger · 1 year ago

Chicago's American, if you do the reading, you might have a different opinion. I suggest Ambrose and "Breach of Faith" by Teddy White.

The July 24 Supreme Court ruling on the tapes, the July 27 House Judiciary votes on impeachment and the Aug. 5 release of the Smoking Gun tape were the knockout punches. But the earlier Tribune editorial was viewed as a loss of support among Main Street Republicans.