was the insiders insider in a long article "Barack Obama, Inc"

He is a player, a very good one. He tells people what they want to hear, he doesn't let himself take a position, he votes present..or not at all.

He helps the rich...

people puled strings to get him up and out there so quickly.. the gave him credit for things other people had done, etc. In Chicago, everyone is a Dem. so you have some very corrupt Dems who run big rackets that involve govt. money.. thats where the real power is.. its insider money...Sec 8 housing, etc.

Of course, now those buildings are worth more as condos.. but then they made a lot of money renting them out to poor people.

And he has practically no past that can be used against him. Nobody doesn't have a past. That is a rare asset in a politician.  Like Chauncey Gardener in 'Being There'.. remember the film?

Yeah. You don't know much about the politics here clearly. Come visit. I'd be happy to show you around.

Teresa, You don't seem to understand how Chicago politics works.

First off, your notion that there's some machine connection between Obama and Blagojevich is laughable.  I don't know how it works in PA, but in IL state-level Democrats aren't a monolithic entity.  Blago has massive support from the slavic communities in the Chicagoland area and they helped him get elected the first time.  Even during his first term his approval sank like a rock.  I believe he's currently on par with President Bush in this regard.  Just to give you an idea how much people hate him, a no-name green party candidate received 14% of the vote in 2006 against him.  3rd party candidates NEVER get that here.  He ultimately won reelection however because the the IL Republican party fielded an absolutely shitty candidate that made him look good by comparison.  Also the IL Republican party blitzed with some hokey negative ads and push-polling that crossed the line, costing themselves the sympathy of disaffected dems.

As for Daley...
Chicago has always been a city of neighborhoods.  The "Daley Machine" power base tended to rest in the white Irish, Italian, and Polish blue collar neighborhoods.  Daley home base was in Bridgeport, on the south side.  However, the south side itself is made up of about a dozen different neighborhoods, some white, some black, some Hispanic, some mixed.   The Daley Machine's power never really extended into the black neighborhoods, nor did it reach to all the wealthy lakefront neighborhoods to the north.  In fact, the Daley machine's opposition quite frequently came from neighborhoods within Obama's district, who from time-to-time would win when allied with the "lakefront liberals" another city faction that wasn't in lock-step with the Daleys.

As far as Rezko is concerned, he was actually highly thought of by people who knew him before he got busted.  He hid his corruption fairly well and was often viewed as a bootstrappin' do-gooder entrepreneur by the Chicago press.  That, along with his money, got him a lot of access to IL politics. Oddly enough his ties to Obama are ultimately pretty weak compared to the machine dems.  City aldermen, state reps, and the governor was far more valuable targets to corrupt people like Rezko than state Senator Obama ever could be.  This makes sense when you consider their functions.  If your objective is to trade favors in Chicago you want to be an alderman, representative, the mayor, or the governor, not a senator.

Yeah not so much. Check out all of the people he ran against.