by John McCormick

President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff released a video message this morning that he recorded to boost Chicago's efforts to win the 2016 Olympics. The message is for the European Olympic Committee (EOC) XXXVII General Assembly meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.

"In the coming years, my administration will bring a fresh perspective on America's role and responsibilities around the world," Obama says in the message. "But if we are to truly meet our shared challenges, we must all work together. By uniting the world in a peaceful celebration of human achievement, the Olympic Games reminds us that this is possible."

Obama goes on to talk about the importance of the Olympics to international relations.

"The United States would be honored to have the opportunity to host the Games and serve the Olympic Movement," he says. "As President-Elect, I see the Olympic and Paralympic Games as an opportunity for our nation to reach out, welcome the world to our shores, and strengthen our friendships across the globe."

Mayor Richard J. Daley at Chicago City Hall at June 14, 1973 press conference. Chicago Tribune photo by George Quinn.

by Frank James

Although the 2008 presidential campaign is over, its talking points apparently aren't, particularly the one about President-elect Barack Obama being a creature of Chicago Machine Politics.

In the last few weeks of the election, this was an attack line the McCain campaign used as part of its attempt to raise questions about Obama.

Yesterday, Grover Norquist, a leader of the diminished conservative movement in Washington, was on C-Span accusing Obama and his new chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of being products of the "Chicago political machine." And when Rush Limbaugh after the election called both Obama and Emanuel two Chicago "thugs" he was obviously stretching to make the same point.

There's only one not-so-small problem with this talking point -- there is no Chicago political machine. There hasn't been a Chicago machine for decades. The machine effectively died with Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1976. People who talk as though the Chicago machine still exists are vaguely amusing in the same way visitors to Chicago who want to do the Al Capone tours are.

Tom Krieglstein, 28, and Joe Musselman, 24, are first in line at Michigan Ave and Congress Pkwy, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (Chicago Tribune photo by Michael Tercha.)

As many as a million people are expected at Grant Park tonight for what a lot of people expect will be a victory celebration.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is issuing about 75,000 tickets. Everyone else is going to have to line up and hope to get in.

People started lining up early, like Monday night. Chicago Tribune journalists found the two earliest birds, the Brothers Kreiglstein -- Tom, 28, and Dan, 29 from Chicago.

Here's a report from the Tribune's Breaking News Desk.

by Frank James, revised with an Obama campaign clarification.

Preparations are underway in Chicago's Grant Park and the surrounding area for Sen. Barack Obama's big Election Night event, which looks like it will be a celebration if he wins or the world's largest consolation session if he doesn't.

Chicago Tribune reporter Dan Mihalopoulos has a posting up on the Tribune's Clout Street blog with details.

Mayor Richard Daley put the tab at $2 million today for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's Grant Park rally on election night.

Noting the city's budget shortfall and planned layoffs of city workers, Daley said, "In this financial crisis, the city of Chicago could not afford $2 million on this."

by Frank James

Chicago is once again drawing fire from Republicans who have seemingly convinced themselves that they have to run not only against Sen. Barack Obama but against an entire city.

Sen. John McCain, for instance, has recently gone around saying with mock indignation that he doesn't need be schooled on how to tell the truth by a "Chicago politician." (We all know he means "that one.")

The premise of a new Republican National Committee ad called "Chicago Way" is that Obama is tainted because he learned his politics in Chicago of all places, and we're all supposed to know what that means.

Here's the ad's text:

VO: The Chicago Way. Shady politics. That's Barack Obama's training.

There's more you need to know...

Yeah, there sure is. "Shady politics" isn't just the Chicago way, it's the American way. I dare anyone to name one large American city or county which hasn't had corrupt officials, a political machine and irregular elections at one time or another. Is that the sound of crickets?

by Frank James

Eric Zorn, one of the best journalistic bloggers around, is always ready to question underlying premises and he does so again today on his blog, asking what is terrorism and who is a terrorist?

Here's an excerpt:

It's common these days to refer to former Weather Underground radical William Ayers as a one-time "domestic terrorist." Was he?

I see such a practical and moral difference between the two that using "terrorist" to describe them both strikes me as inaccurate, misleading, and, in the case of Ayers, deliberately inflammatory.

by John McCormick, updated

After tapping Chicago-area pockets for 19 months, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is bringing a new face to town tonight to boost fundraising during a time when it has fallen behind an aggressive set of national finance goals.

Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's Democratic running mate, is expected to spend a few hours in Chicago to headline two fundraising events at North Side homes.

The events are being hosted by Chicago businessmen Jim Crown and John Rogers. Admission for a 6:30 p.m. reception is $1,000, while a 7:30 p.m. dinner will cost $5,000.

The Delaware Democrat was last in Illinois late last month when Obama introduced him as his running mate on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield.

But other than the occasional fundraising visit or campaign meeting, Biden is not likely to spend much time in Illinois, a state considered very safe for the Democratic ticket on Nov. 4.

Biden's Chicago stop follows one Monday by Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, who raised more than $4 million while in the city.

by Christi Parsons

In an elegant high-rise apartment overlooking the Chicago Loop Monday night, Michelle Obama ascended a spiral staircase to address a private party of campaign contributors as they dined on sushi and sipped wine.

But as she spoke she frequently gestured toward the wall of glass windows and to the streets beyond the downtown business district, talking of the problems that face residents on the city's South Side and in other struggling neighborhoods around the country.

"Do we settle for the world as it is?" she asked. "Or do we work for the world as it should be?"

It was a familiar theme for the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, who took the "world as it should be" phrase from a speech she heard her future husband give in a church basement on the far South Side when they were first dating.

On Monday, she employed it in a pitch for Dan Seals and Debbie Halvorson, two Illinois Democrats seeking congressional seats currently held by Republicans. Michelle Obama was the featured guest at the fundraiser in the home of real estate magnate Neil Bluhm, who hosted the event along with Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

Sen. Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Friday, June 6, 2008, during an unscheduled stop at the Chicago 2016 Olympic Rally in Chicago at Daley Plaza.(Chicago Tribune photo by Heather Stone)

by Amanda Erickson

Chicago's taking a political backseat to the likes of likes of New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Little Rock no longer. Thanks to Barack Obama, it's back in the spotlight as the headquarters of the Democratic Party.

In a Politico article, David Paul Kuhn writes that the city has become central to American politics and the Democrats' efforts to retake the White House this year. "Chicago," Kuhn writes, "is the new capital of the Democratic Party."

It's only fair. The city has a storied history of painting the town blue. According to Kuhn, it has hosted 25 nominating conventions. It's where Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the new Republican Party in 1860. And it controversially "delivered" just enough votes in 1960 to squeeze John F. Kennedy past Richard Nixon for the White House. It's where where Bill Clinton accepted renomination in 1996.

But in the last ten years, Kuhn writes, Chicago has played a bit part in the national presidential election drama. It's been more than a decade since Dems met in Chicago, and more than 50 years since a nominee had broad Chicagoland roots.

Not anymore. The city's political scene features a 33,000 square foot Michigan Avenue campaign office for Obama and vital Democratic National Committee operations, as well as Richard M. Daley, who the article considers one of the nation's most influential Democratic mayors.

by Frank James

There's certainly some irony in the conviction of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, Sen. Barack Obama's former ally and campaign contributor, one day after Obama made history by becoming the first African-American to clinch a major political party's presidential nomination.

Rezko, a Chicago businessman and wheeler-dealer, saw Obama's gifts early, even before the Democratic presidential nominee officially entered politics. As he faces years in prison on his conviction on corruption charges, Rezko at least has the satisfaction of knowing that he's a keen judge of political talent.

For Obama, Rezko's conviction means the all-but-official Democratic presidential nominee can expect to face dark Republican ads, likely featuring a narrator whose voice conjures up something sinister, that refer to the senator from Illinois's one-time relationship with the convicted businessman.

Expect to see, for instance, ads with Obama South Side Chicago house and that infamous side yard he purchased from Rezko's wife. Indeed, the GOP just put this new site up.

It will all be part of an effort to dull Obama's sheen of novelty and portray him as a regular Cook County Democratic politician, as someone with the requisite dirty laundry that comes with that territory.

If there are any saving graces for Obama, they would be that the trial didn't reveal much more about his relationship with Rezko than we already knew.

Also, the conviction probably surprised no one. The evidence against Rezko was fairly strong.

Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune story by Bob Secter and Jeff Coen.

by Bob Secter and Jeff Coen

The name of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was added Monday to the roster of political heavyweights linked by witnesses to an alleged plan to dump Chicago's top federal prosecutor and kill a criminal investigation into a top fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

A witness at the corruption trial of Blagojevich insider Antoin "Tony" Rezko testified that Rezko told him in February 2005 about an effort under way to fire U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald and replace him with someone more compliant to be hand-picked by Hastert, then the top Republican in the House.

Rezko said the Hastert designee would then "order the prosecutor to stop the investigation," recalled Elie Maloof, a former Rezko business associate who also testified that Rezko had told him to keep Rezko's name to himself if he were questioned by authorities because it could damage Blagojevich.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune.

Chicago Tribune Photo by Candice C. Cusic.

by John McCormick

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sen. Barack Obama said he spoke with Mayor Richard Daley today about the increasing gun violence in Chicago.

"He's going to have a summit this afternoon and so I wanted to get an update on his plans and find out how I can be helpful at the federal level," Obama said. "A lot of the emphasis is going to be on more effective community policing. A lot of the emphasis is going to be on how we are working together to give young people more constructive things to do and to give them more perspective in terms of why violence is unacceptable."

The Illinois Democrat said the federal government should work with state and local governments more to "crack down on illegal handguns that are flooding the community."

by Aamer Madhani

Chicago-based Boeing Co. just announced they will formally protest the Air Force decision to award a $35 billion contract to a consortium led by Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. to overhaul the service's aerial refueling tanker fleet.

Boeing officials had until Wednesday to file the appeal that would compel the Government Accountability Office to review how the Air Force went about granting the contract.

"Our team has taken a very close look at the tanker decision and found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal," Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer said in a statement. "This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously."

by Aamer Madhani

Union leaders are steaming over the Air Force’s decision last week to award a $35 billion contract to build 179 airborne refueling tankers to a partnership of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and the French-owned Aerospace company, EADS.

Richard Michalski, the vice president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, was particularly angry at Gen. Arthur Lichte, the commander of the Air Force’s Air Mobility command. Lichte downplayed the partial outsourcing at a Pentagon news conference to announce that the Northrop-EADS group was the winner over Chicago-based Boeing Co.

"This is an American tanker," Lichte said on Friday. "It's flown by American airmen. It has a big American flag on the tail, and every day it'll be out there saving American lives."

Michalski stopped short of calling Lichte a brie-eating, beret-wearing frog, but the union boss wasn't holding much back.

“To see this Air Force and that Air Force general say that the economics of this country and jobs in this country was not a factor that they even figured into this bidding process just is outrageous,” Michalski said. “To be able to have a general talk like that…That general should look at where his paycheck comes from. The last time I looked it was the U.S.A....That general in particular, with the rude comments he made, should quit his job, move to France and join the French Foreign Legion.”

Michalski said that his organization and others would lobby Congress to introduce legislation that would prohibit the U.S. government from doing business with foreign companies that receive anti-competitive subsidies.

The U.S. Trade Representative has accused the parent company of EADS, Airbus, of receiving such subsidies. The European Union has made similar complaints about Boeing.

by Aamer Madhani

Any day now, the Pentagon is expected to announce the winner of a long-awaited $40 billion contract to build 179 air-to-air refueling tankers for the Air Force.

The two competitors, Chicago-based Boeing Co. and a team from Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., are vying for the lucrative contract to replace a decrepit fleet that dates back to the Eisenhower era.

But the forthcoming announcement may just mark another chapter in the ongoing battle for the mammoth military contract that has the potential of ballooning to more than $100 billion in sales for the winner.

Boeing would make its version of the KC-767 tanker at Everett, Wash., and then fly them to Wichita, Kan. for the final conversion. The Northrop-EADS group would build its version, a KC-30 tanker, in Mobile, Ala.

Many defense analysts expect the losing company or Congressional delegation to appeal the decision with the Government Accountability Office, a move that would further delay a process that date backs to 2001.

Boeing had previously won the contract, but Congress scrapped the offer after it learned that Boeing hired a former Air Force acquisitions official who gave the company preferential treatment before leaving the Air Force.

Boeing is the heavy favorite to win the contract again, according to defense analysts. But Northrop-EADS has put up a spirited fight, and the Alabama Congressional delegation has lobbied hard to win the project.

Earlier today, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, chief of the Air Force, called on the loser to consider what a drawn-out appeal would mean to the service.

“This is not about lawyers and companies,” Moseley said “This is about operational capability and fielding capability for the country. So if it we get a long, drawn out protest, we still operate 44-year old airplanes longer. To me that’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for the people I ask to get in the airplane. It’s a big deal for the people that I ask to take the airplane to combat….From a service chief’s perspective, I would ask them to think about the country and think about the people that fly the plane.”

By Michael Martinez

LOS ANGELES – Turnabout is fair play when Oprah stumps for Obama on Super Bowl Sunday.

Normally, Lucille “Miss” Evans, 54, a south Los Angeles community activist, is something of a football widow to her boyfriend, Ray Lewis, on Super Bowl day.

But when Oprah was scheduled to come to the University of California at Los Angeles to rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Evans told Lewis that he would have to give up the NFL’s biggest game – or at least a good part of it – to hear Oprah, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama on Sunday afternoon.

Lewis thus became something of a widower to a rival event on Super Bowl Sunday.

President Bush visits third graders at Horace Greeley Elementary in Chicago, Illinois, Monday, January 7, 2008. (Chicago Tribune photo by Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

by Matthew Hay Brown

Visiting a Chicago elementary school today, President Bush said he was open to increasing flexibility in the No Child Left Behind Act – but threatened to veto any changes that would weaken educational accountability, and said he was prepared to reform it himself if Congress didn’t cooperate.

“Look, I recognize some people don't like accountability,” Bush said today at Horace Greeley Elementary School. “In other words, accountability says if you're failing, we're going to expose that and expect you to change. Accountability also says that when you're succeeding you'll get plenty of praise.

“I know No Child Left Behind has worked. And I believe this country needs to build upon the successes. The philosophy behind No Child Left Behind was in return for money there ought to be results. It's pretty commonsensical it seems like to me.”

Bush’s signature domestic policy, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, which requires public schools to show improvements in student achievement in reading and math or face sanctions, comes up for reauthorization this year. The sides are establishing their positions for the debate to come.

Critics say the law has turned schools into test preparation centers that focus on reading and math to the neglect of other subjects. They also say the law has never been funded to the levels needed for it to work.

“When Congress joined President Bush in 2002 to usher in a dramatic reform of our nation’s schools, we were hopeful that increased accountability and performance standards, together with a significant increase in the federal investment in education, would raise student achievement levels,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today in response to Bush’s comments.

Andrew Zajac

Mayor Richard M. Daley clearly wanted somebody with an FBI pedigree to run his scandal-plagued police department and