The Boys from Chicago

The Boys from Chicago

It only took Fox News one year to figure out that the boys from Chicago are running the country now. I would love to see the whole team -- Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Beck -- take on Mayor Daley. It would hardly be a fair fight. Daley wouldn't even break out in a sweat.

Fox News did find ACORN. That was a gimme, small potatoes. They found Barney Frank -- lots of fun and noise from Massachusetts, but they never realized, until it was in plain sight, that His Honor is the Number Two man in the country.

So President Obama borrowed Air Force One for the weekend and flew to Copenhagen to promote Chicago's Olympic bid. He did what he was supposed to do. He showed up and made his pitch, disregarding the fallout if he should fail, which he did.

Back home, it didn't matter. Obama made his effort without trying to disguise the favor, and Daley's team is consoled by the fact that they still have the White House, Air Force One, and control of the federal government.

You can tell who runs things -- they're the quiet ones. You can tell who isn't running things -- the guys making all the noise.

I was conflicted myself, being from Chicago. But a disclaimer -- I am from the North Shore, an affluent suburban region of Chicagoland and would never say I was from Chicago, except I am out here near Seattle, where no one knows the difference.

Anyway, I was conflicted, because I was glad Rio de Janeiro got the Olympics in 2016. It was simply South America's turn and they deserved it.

I also felt the warmth of losing. From Chicago, we're used to it. When I was a kid, when baseball really mattered, the Cubs always came in last place. So I decided to become a White Sox fan and that was even worse, because the White Sox played well, but they always come in SECOND, and the Yankees always won. Always losing, it's tough. And the climate is ferocious, terribly hot in the summer, bitter winds in the winter, and the countryside is flat as a pool table. That's Chicagoland.

As for the Olympic Committee -- they are as gods, invisible and inscrutable. It is not for mortals to decipher their meaning. Obama's charisma did not play well before this committee, and he knew that. But he took one for the team and that's what really mattered.

Fox News misses the point when they call Obama a socialist. He's not. He's a Daley-ist.
The Daley program is higher taxes for the upper half and higher wages for the lower half. The Daley program is urban-oriented and anti-Wal-Mart. It's about strong government for strong people. It's not heaven on earth, but it's way better than Dick Cheney running the country.