Obama takes another local hit--this time from a liberal

In the Chicago area it's been a bad week for Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). Last Wednesday the Chicago Tribune disclosed a bizarre real estate deal the Obamas had with wife of indicted Democratic fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Also last week, Obama had the audacity to endorse hack politician and fellow Democrat Todd Stroger in his bid to succeed his hack politican and fellow Democrat father John Stroger as President of the Cook County Board.

Cook County government may not be the most corrupt and ineffecient public entity in the nation, but it's so close to the bottom, rankings don't matter.

Liberal columnist Carol Marin of the Chicago Sun-Times, someone I usually don't agree with, hits Obama hard in her column from yesterday:

(The Obama and Sen Dick Durbin endorsement of Stroger) has been one of the sadder sagas in Chicago political history. And Obama, America's audacious knight in shining armor, deprives us of the very hope he likes to talk about in his speeches and his books.

I don't mean to let Durbin off the hook but, frankly, I expected him to endorse the "regular" in this race. But Obama has allowed us to believe that he is different somehow. A new voice, a new frontier.

Instead, he's traveled down the same dingy path that promotes the outright mediocrity and questionable competence that has given Chicago politics the reputation it richly deserves.

Obama can call young Todd "a good progressive Democrat" if he wants. But any conviction that Stroger will "lead" us somewhere worth going is quite a stretch, and Obama knows it.

Stroger's opponent in tomorrow's election is Republican Tony Peraica--that's who I'm voting for on Tuesday.

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