When Benjamin Harrison attributed his 1888 election to the presidency to Divine Providence, Pennsylvania’s political boss, US Senator Matthew Quay opined that the president-elect had no idea “how close a number of men were compelled to approach the penitentiary to make Harrison president.” The same could be said of the historic election of Barack Obama.

While pundits are trying to hail his electoral triumph as a mandate for change and the beginning of a sweeping political realignment, there are still discomforting series of potential scandals swirling around a president-elect who managed to run out the clock with the assistance of a complacent media that abdicated any claim to responsible journalistic practices months ago. Having witnessed Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1984, I know what a mandate is and Obama and the Democrats did not secure those type of election results. I also know that the election returns from certain precincts suggest that

Chicago political chicanery has been exported into several of our neighboring states. Obama escaped any scrutiny throughout much of the campaign, so much so that the hardest hitting reports on the candidate appeared in European rather than American newspapers.

Over the years, I have been less than enthused with some of the actions of US Senator John McCain, but I ultimately did support his candidacy. My reluctance to follow the unthinking masses who jumped on the Obama bandwagon was the by product of keeping a scorecard and knowing the players in Illinois politics. Despite his inspiring, if somewhat nonspecific, rhetoric and his “Hyde Park independent” pretenses, Barack Obama has always shown a willingness to advance himself by playing along with some of the worst political elements in the Illinois. Many of his current and former associates are sweating out investigative activities taking place at the Dirksen Federal Court House and the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

The political landscape is littered with the bodies of former opponents and political allies that Obama knifed in the back or threw under the bus: Alice Palmer, Blair Hull, Jack Ryan and Jeremiah Wright are familiar names, but the impoverished constituents in need of affordable public housing that Obama sold out when accepting favors and gratuities from Tony Rezko and other developers are too numerous to be listed.

The template for Obama’s election victory can be found in the Prairie State which twice elected Rod Blagojevich to the governorship. Blagojevich raised massive sums of campaign cash by any means necessary and outspent any and all rivals. The methods that Blagojevich used for fundraising and trading political appointments for cash have resulted multiple investigations. The question to be answered in Springfield is whether Blagojevich will be impeached or indicted first? Obama repeated Blagojevich’s feats by raising and spending obscene amounts of money and sucking all of the oxygen out of the political process. Obama aired four commercials for every one on behalf of his opponent.

Some of the campaign cash appears to have been tainted and the identity of the donors has not been properly disclosed.

Time will tell if the investigations of Obama’s fundraising methods and the vote fraud allegations directed towards ACORN, an activist group that received substantial sums of money from the Obama campaign, which subsequently denied any contacts with the group once the heat was on, will amount to anything or if the scandals can be managed or swept under the rug. I suspect, if Obama has learned his lessons from Saul Alinsky and City Hall well enough, some hapless subordinates will be made to take the blame for the phony voter registrations, stolen votes and illegal foreign campaign contributions that Obama readily accepted. Dumping US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald may delay the day of

reckoning (former US Representative Dan Rostenkowski gained a two year reprieve when the Justice Department was emptied out by President Clinton), but sooner or later the wheels of justice will grind out additional indictments and prosecutions.

In a rare display of candor, US Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-5th) admitted sometime ago that he and Obama were once on familiar terms with Governor Rod Blagojevich. In 2002, Blagojevich harbored presidential ambitions of his own and actually thought that he might rate consideration as a vice presidential prospect in 2004 after being elected as the first Democratic governor of Illinois in more than a quarter century. Northshore Rahm Emanuel, a graduate of New Trier High School, sought to reinvent himself as “a lifelong Chicagoan” while campaigning for Blagojevich’s former congressional seat that same election year with the support of Donald Tomczak’s notorious Water Department crew of precinct workers. Tomczak is now in prison and Emanuel has denied being aware of the crimes that were committed on behalf of his candidacy. What Blagojevich achieved on a statewide basis in 2002 and 2006, Obama was able to replicate nationally. Obama’s righteous wind may prove to be so much hot air since he has asked Emanuel to become his chief of staff.

Years ago, I spent considerable time in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Both states once enjoyed reputations for progressive politics and honest elections. I was astounded at how relaxed the voting laws were in these states where it was possible for prospective voters to register and demand ballots simply by appearing at polling places on election day. It occurred to me if Chicago style politicians were ever able to infiltrate these states, it would be a relatively simple matter to steal elections. It took a quarter of a century, but it

finally came to pass last Tuesday. In several key battleground states ACORN, a purportedly non-partisan organization supported with taxpayer dollars, was exceptionally active in the months running up to the election. Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna provided the role models for these latter day vote hustlers. During the nomination phase of the campaign, credible allegations were made as to out of state residents being bussed in to attend caucuses.

The Secretary of State in Ohio would be maligned as this year’s equivalent of Florida’s former Secretary of State Katherine Harris, but for the fact that Jennifer Brunner was aiding and abetting ACORN and the Democrats. The polling data that was broadcast far and wide for the past few weeks suggested a double digit victory for the Democratic candidate. Those polls were not even close to being accurate. The polls were so skewed that it seemed as if the methodology employed in gathering the data had been deliberately manipulated. Suppressing the votes of likely opposition voters is every bit as

valuable as maximizing turn out among voters who support your cause. I cannot believe that certain media outlets were not trying to promote Obama by demoralizing those voters likely to oppose him on November 4th.

As an American, I am hoping for the best and I want to believe that the new president is entitled to a fair chance to prove himself, but appointing corrupt and ethically challenged Illinois political insiders to key administration positions does not instill much confidence in the mind of many long suffering Illinoisans. This is not change that we can believe in.

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