Chicago Daily Observer

From the Daily Herald

As the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination battle winds down (despite Hillary Clinton’s massive West Virginia victory) I would like to present “eight” key steps to Barack Obama’s apparent nomination victory.

• Summer 2007—In the multicandidate debate at Soldier Field sponsored by organized labor, most of the Democratic candidates seemed in awe of Clinton. She oozed confidence while the others, including Obama, appeared shaky. However, my notes from the debate mentioned that Clinton generated little positive passion about her candidacy—rather, she played on her experience and the inevitability of her nomination victory.

A funny thing happened to Bill Ayers in the years between his first headline-grabbing activities and his cameo role in the 2008 presidential campaign. He became a pillar of the very establishment he had once conspired to bring down.

Mayor Richard Daley proclaimed Ayers, an educational consultant to the city, “a valued member of the Chicago community.”

Ayers, 63, was less charitable about Daley’s father, who was mayor in 1968 when Vietnam War activists tried to disrupt the Democratic National Convention.

“White and fleshy, he reeked with the stench of evil,” Ayers wrote of Richard J. Daley in his 2001 memoir, “Fugitive Days.”