DISQUS

blog it · 1 year ago

Real estate executive Valerie Jarrett, a member of Obama's transition team and a trusted family confidant, is President-elect Obama's choice to replace him in the Senate, reports ABC 7's Ben Bradley.

GofG · 1 year ago

Daley has a whole new, big-time, ambassador to the Olympic Committee. That should be a boon for Chicago but probably not for Illinois.

wordslinger · 1 year ago

What money? AIG got another bump over the weekend. Detroit's next.

Obama's first order of business will be figuring out what exactly Bush, the fed and Congress have put us on the hook for the last couple of months. I don't there's a lot of money to spread around.
The West and South have dominated in that area for a long time.

Bill Baar · 1 year ago

There is going to be a Presidential Library in Hyde Park for sure... I'm betting on the West Side of Washington Park.

Conservative Republican · 1 year ago

"Arkansas politics is dirtier and more self-centered than ours in many ways"....

Really? I think that's quite a tough sell. Last week, an academician wrote in the Wall Street Journal that in 1960 BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans stole massive amounts of votes in the famous Kennedy-Nixon election of '60.

My personal experience also supports the contrary conclusion. Among a million anecdotes, I will only share this: In 2004, I walked a precinct in Milwaukee for President Bush. One lady very calmly told me she would not vote Republican; I shrugged and walked on. Fifteen minutes later, she had tracked me down in her car to profusely apologize for her "rudeness". Not only had I never experienced that in Northern Illinois, when I walked a precinct in Chicago for McCain the other week, one resident screamed [FROM RICH MILLER: Please don't swear in comments in any way] at me from his first floor window.

Tell me this isn't a dirtier environment.

Rich Miller · 1 year ago

CR, all you did was point to Illinois stuff, some of it from 48 years ago. Not a compelling comparison argument.

The Doc · 1 year ago

What Chicago alderman and the rest of the drooling statewide pols have failed to consider is that Congress, not the president's administration, metes out federal dollars. If Obama is true to his word about eliminating pork and the like, there's little evidence to suggest IL will disproportionately benefit from a Chicagoan in the White House.

Pat collins · 1 year ago

What benefit, if any, can be expected from "executive decisions".

Remember back in 88, 89 when there was going to be a super collider built? Well, IL had Fermilab, and Argonne, but somehow Texas got chosen as the site.

It was not built, but you see the point.

Hanging Chad · 1 year ago

Just Announced: Governor Rod Blagojevich announced today that he will auction off the Senate seat being vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama. Starting bid: $1-Billion.

All proceeds will go to Friends of Blagojevich.

Fan of the Game · 1 year ago

I hope the Obama campaign is buying its cold water by the truckload because expectations are astronomical and not only in Chicago.

Leroy · 1 year ago

Bill Clinton is no Barack Obama.

We need to expect more from Obama.

wordslinger · 1 year ago

--Remember back in 88, 89 when there was going to be a super collider built? Well, IL had Fermilab, and Argonne, but somehow Texas got chosen as the site.--

Pat, do you remember how that went down?

A couple of days after the '88 presidential election, the Department of Energy held a press conference to announce the site for the $4 billion project. Just when the press conference was to start, three Texans walked into the room -- President-elect Bush, House Speaker Jim Wright, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Lloyd Bentsen (the defeated Dem veep candidate) The site? Surprise -- the Dallas/Ft. Worth suburbs. That was clout, my friends.

Four years later, Bush was gone, Wright was gone and Bentsen was on his way to being a short-timer Secretary of Treasury. The collider was abandoned as a $2 billion hole in the ground.

Although the collider was not a boon to science, a quick google shows that it did contribute to film history as the site for scenes from Jean Claude Van-Dammes "Universial Soldier: The Return." So it wasn't a total waste of money.

Six Degrees of Separation · 1 year ago

It will be interesting to see how many infrastructure projects, some 30 miles or more away, will be "necessary" for the 2016 Olympics, should Chicago be selected for this 3-week "event".

NimROD · 1 year ago

===Obama’s first order of business will be figuring out what exactly Bush, the fed and Congress have put us on the hook for the last couple of months.===

Are you saying Obama wasn't aware what he voted for in the bailout?

steal your face · 1 year ago

I'm not a political insider or strategist, but or course the pork won't roll into Illinois! IL is a blue state that Obama already has wrapped up, and everyone should already know that pork is just a word for "bribe for votes." Since no Obama votes are needed for IL, no pork will roll our way. It wont be long now before the expectations begin crashing down to earth.

Bill Baar · 1 year ago

...put us on the hook...

Not to mention GM lowering a hook...

wordslinger · 1 year ago

NimROD, I'm suggesting no one really knows how this will play out, including everyone who was for it.

Bill Baar · 1 year ago

The collider's tunnel by-the-way would have gone right under my house. It was not welcomed by everyone in Kane and it mobilized an opposition that stayed active in local politics for years...

Will · 1 year ago

Little Rock did get a new Presidential Library that helped revitalize downtown and paid for a light rail trolley system. So at least they got some benefit even if they had to wait a decade for it.

I don't think people need to worry. Durbin doesn't appear to have any problems steering pork our way.

Phil Collins · 1 year ago

I hope that the pork, to all states, will decrease. Each year, the federal government gives about $400 billion to state and local governments, although that spending isn't authorized, for the federal government, in the Constitution. Congress should eliminate that spending, saving about 13% of the federal budget. If they do that, they would pass an across-the-board 13% tax rate cut. When federal tax rates are lower, state and local governments would be able to change their tax rates, to ensure that they'll receive enough money, without federal help.

Cheswick · 1 year ago

I recall reading somewhere that the only presidential library to be funded from U.S. tax dollars is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. All the rest got private funding.

Fan of the Game · 1 year ago

===I recall reading somewhere that the only presidential library to be funded from U.S. tax dollars is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. All the rest got private funding.===

Abe had a headache and wasn't up to attending the $1,000-a-plate fundraisers.

curious george · 1 year ago

How is Arkansas politics dirtier than Illinois?-Do they have more governors with felony records?-or more public figures under investigation?-It certainly would give an Illinoian a bit of an uplift to know of a state more corrupt than this one-or at least be able to rationalize our situation as something common to other states

Anon · 1 year ago

Illinois may not get much out of it directly, but when President Obama decides to sell the While House and the Executive Office Building simultaneously, but in separate sales, he'll just naturally turn to Chicago realtors with some prior experience in this kind of deal.