“Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,
That he is grown so great?”
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene ii, by William Shakespeare

Given the fact that Barack Obama is the official licensed candidate from the
Oprah Book Club who conducts his campaign rallies like a evangelist leading
a revival in a rented tent, I fully expect him to adopt “Brother Love’s
Traveling Salvation Show“ as his theme song, provided that Neil Diamond will
grant him the musical rights. I have listened long and loud to “the Platitude
Dude” for months on end and I still cannot explain to you what his specific
policy proposals are. “Change that you can believe in” makes less sense to me
than Bud Abbott informing Lou Costello of the baseball line up in the immortal
“Who’s on first” comedy sketch.

Forgive me, but I am one of those shoppers who like to read labels to check
on the contents of a given product before making my purchase. Most Obama
adherents seem to want to use the express checkout line. To paraphrase a
question first asked by the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, I would want the activist
and community organizer to respond to this query, “What trees have you planted?
” For all of Obama’s inflated claims as to his “twenty years” of community
service, Englewood looks just as blighted today as when this latter day
disciple of Saul Alinsky began organizing the community. I cannot point to a
single accomplishment that Obama can claim credit for as a legislator in
Springfield or in Washington other than fattening his own bank account.

Some reader comments have contained complaints that I am opposed to Obama’s
candidacy. To this charge, I will plead guilty, but there is a definite basis
to my bias. I am one of his constituents and I sometimes feel decidedly
unrepresented in Washington. Isn’t Illinois entitled to the full-time services of
two US Senators?

Obama has not been an effective representative in terms of administering his
current office. The first politician that I paid any notice to was probably
the late Congressman Frank Annunzio, who represented my former district for
two decades after he relocated from another congressional district on the West
Side. To be certain, Annunzio was closely associated with the First Ward
Regular Democratic Organization and the West Side Bloc over the course of his
career, but he provided reliable constituent services. Every letter sent to his
office was acknowledged with a polite written reply. Each newly naturalized
American citizen residing in the district received a congratulatory letter
from Annunzio. Obama has been too preoccupied with his political ambitions and
his own personal and financial advancement to have mastered the details of
running his district offices. As someone who has e-mailed, faxed, telephoned and
written to Senator Obama, the best description of his office staff might be
that the lights are on, but nobody seems to be at home. Annunzio may have
been a nondescript cog in the party machinery, but he was far more attentive to
his constituents than Obama.

Obama has difficulty relating to blue collar workers, rural residents,
Latinos, and some women according to polling results. Apart from his support in
the African American community, Obama seems to be out of touch with several key
constituent groups that represent the modern Democratic Party. These humble
folks do not attend Molotov cocktail parties with Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers
and other leading members of the vanguard of the proletariat.

Throughout his undistinguished tenure in the Illinois State Senate, Obama
seemed to be simply marking time as he sought an opportunity to campaign for a
higher office. Few, if any, of his bedazzled followers can recall that Obama
was totally demolished by incumbent US Representative Bobby Rush (D-1st) when
he tried to storm Capitol Hill for the first time in 2000. Rush beat back
this primary election challenge by questioning Obama’s bona fides and by
depicting him as an opportunistic carpet bagger. Truth be told, Obama really had no
connection to Illinois. He set up shop here because the demographics of the
legislative districts on the South side were overwhelmingly favorable to
black candidates. He had to embrace Reverend Jeremiah Wright because he lacked
any standing in the community and it would be beneficial to be seen as an
associate of the radical preacher on account of the size of the size of the
congregation at his Afrocentric mega church.

Despite adopting the pose of a reformer, Obama has seldom criticized corrupt
practices in Chicago’s City Hall. He has been entirely mute on political
slate making issues. Upon being elected to the US Senate, Obama failed to play a
meaningful role in the selection of his successor in the Illinois Senate and
watched from the sidelines as Kwame Raoul (D-13th) was appointed to the seat
after promising to contribute large sums to the ward organizations of the
local committeemen. Prior to his appointment, Raoul had practiced law in
Evanston, Illinois, where his former law partner, Lionel Jean Baptiste, gained a
measure of notoriety by filing an unsuccessful class action lawsuit seeking to
recover slave reparation payments. The suit was dismissed in court. Obama was
also silent when Todd Stroger was appointed to replace his incapacitated
father as the Democratic nominee for the position of Cook County Board President.
So much for identifying with reform politicians! If Obama cannot help foster
reform locally, how can be expected to clean up politics in Washington?

“Pay to play” seems to be another disturbing constant in Obama’s meteoric
political rise. He always seems to be available to the highest bidder. As this
is being written, Tony Rezko is awaiting a jury verdict in his corruption
trial. A guilty verdict has the potential to embarrass Obama mightily, but this
is not the only example of Obama’s willingness to choose his friends based
upon their ability to contribute campaign cash. In another remarkable
omission, the curious relationship between Obama and his political protégé, Illinois
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has not been widely publicized. Locally,
the story generated some brief coverage, but the subject has been barely
examined by the mainstream media. Bloggers are familiar with the tale, but Obama
has skated on this subject with the general public.

Some background is necessary: after spending a season playing professional
basketball in Greece, Giannoulias returned to the USA and enrolled in law
school at Tulane University in New Orleans, where every day is Mardi Gras. Less
than three years after being admitted to practice in Illinois, Giannoulias
launched his campaign for State Treasurer. With the financial support of his
family banking business and US Senator Barack Obama’s endorsement, this
politically inexperienced individual secured the Democratic nomination. In the general
election campaign, State Democratic Party Chairman, Michael Madigan,
continued to keep Giannoulias at arm’s length. Madigan had supported a different
candidate in the primary and disseminated disquieting rumors about the business
background of Giannoulias, the former Vice President and Senior Loan Officer
of the Broadway Bank, which was owned by his family members. During his brief
tenure in the banking industry, Giannoulias appears to have approved loans
to convicted felons with ties to organized crime. One such loan applicant was
a convicted bookmaker with an alleged sideline business promoting
prostitution.

Our colleague, Russ Stewart was one of the few who pointed out the fact that
Obama played the role of kingmaker in Giannoulias’ successful first time
candidacy. At the age of thirty, Giannoulias became the youngest treasurer in
Illinois history. What qualified Giannoulias for public office and earned him
Obama’s endorsement? He plays basketball with Obama. No park district field
house or asphalt parking lot games for these two men of the people. When in
Chicago, Obama and his pal prefer to play at the exclusive East Bank Club.
Throughout the primary season. Giannoulias has hit the campaign trail to play
Obama in pick up games on the dates of the respective state primaries. Obama
finds it relaxing to play hoops when ballots are being cast. Apart from shooting
buckets, it also helped that Giannoulias and his family members have
contributed so generously to the various Obama campaigns. Giannoulias and his family
are not absolutely committed true believers in the Democratic Party and its
causes, however, as they hedged their bets by contributing to the House
Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and to have also made campaign
contributions to former Governor George H. Ryan.

You may ask, “Isn‘t this simply politics as usual?” What makes this
association troublesome is that there was more than mere smoke behind the rumors
peddled about Giannoulias in the primary. The Broadway Bank, operated by
Giannoulias and his relatives made loans to organized crime figures. Giannoulias,
who was not charged with any crime, responded that he was not obligated to
perform criminal background checks on loan applicants. Nevertheless, the bank
loaned Michael “Jaws” Giorango and his associates a cool $15 million dollars. A
portion of the proceeds of the loan was used to purchase a Florida hotel
that was used by a prostitution ring. Oops!

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis produced an inflammatory and highly topical novel
entitled “It Can’t Happen Here.” This was an unusual offering from Lewis that
was written in great haste to coincide with approaching 1936 presidential
election. One of the dangers that the book addressed was the temptation to
support a political unknown in uncertain times simply to be different. “Change
that you can believe in” anyone?
As you might guess, in the Lewis novel, actions do have consequences,
sometimes dire consequences for an uninformed electorate. To put it another way, to
quote Karl Marx, a discussion group favorite in Hyde Park assemblages, “
Nations and women are not forgiven the unguarded hour in which the first
adventurer to come along could violate them.”

Daniel J. Kelley is a regular contributor to “The Chicago Daily Observer.”