The United States of Chicago
by Bill Thomas (excerpt)

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

The Obama administration is tanking, and Democrats and their media flacks are blaming everyone but themselves. Talk-show host Bill Maher zeroes in on the basic theme: Americans "are not bright enough to really understand the issues." "The biggest culprit in our current predicament," as Jacob Weisberg sees it in Slate, is "the childishness, ignorance and growing incoherence of the public at large."

In other words, the same voting public that fell for "hope and change" and put Barack Obama in office a year ago suddenly is too stupid to notice the genius at work in the White House. With Obama not inclined to do what presidents are supposed to do, namely keep the country solvent and secure, lots of people are wondering what gives. Talk about dumb. Obama learned his politics in Chicago, where complainers are ignored. But in Washington, Democratic Party officials are concerned his "transformative" presidency may be transforming millions of former supporters into an angry mob. The latest polls shows the party has something to worry about.

Obama ran for the presidency promising to be the exact opposite of what he's turned out to be: a Chicago political operator too slick for his own good. Which isn't that surprising, because the Chicago way of doing things is what he's brought to the White House. Chicago, it's important to know, has been run by the Democratic Party since 1931. That's one-party rule for 79 years.

Currently under the control of Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of a former Chicago mayor, the city's political machine, in exchange for unquestioning loyalty, dispenses everything from jobs to Thanksgiving turkeys. That these goodies should flow through the Democratic Party makes perfect sense. Chicago's politburo-style city council has 50 members. Forty-seven seats are held by Democrats, two seats are vacant, and one seat is Republican. Do the math. In most American governing bodies, business is done by compromise. In Chicago, there's no need for compromise because there's practically no opposition party. This is how Obama and Co. thought it would be running Washington.