“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.”