U of I PoliScientist, Dick Simpson: "Obama is not related to the corruption pattern in Chicago"

[DCBob]

Obama seen untouched by Illinois governor charges
Tue Dec 9, 2008 5:29pm By Deborah Charles

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's decision to keep a distance from his state's governor, who was arrested on corruption charges on Tuesday, should enable him to escape becoming tainted by the scandal, analysts said. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich stands accused of trying to sell the president-elect's vacant U.S. Senate seat for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife, among other charges. "Obama is not related to the corruption pattern in Chicago," said political scientist Dick Simpson of the University of Illinois in Chicago. "He has not been pressing for any person to replace him in his Senate seat." U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, announcing the charges, also said Obama was in no way implicated.

more: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4B87J820081209
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As if we didn't know that already. Kudos to Obama for not playing the Chicago corruption game! :applause:

[AZ Criminal JD]

1. Simpson just said three weeks ago Chicago was not corrupt

"We're not looked at the same way we might have been years ago," says Dick Simpson http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1858493,00.html

He needs to make up his mind.

[DCBob]

5. Here is Simpson's complete comment:

The problem with trying to taint Obama with the label of "Chicago politics" is that most Americans no longer make the association with corruption. "We're not looked at the same way we might have been years ago," says Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman and chair of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We're not Al Capone's city. We're not the stockyards of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle." These days Chicago is known for blending working-class kitsch — Da Bears and the Cubbies — with cosmopolitan shopping and restaurants on Michigan Avenue. Its graceful mix of cutting-edge, environmentally conscious modern architecture and classic parks and buildings has actually given it a reputation as a model of a 21st-century metropolis, which the city is hoping to use to help land the 2016 Summer Olympics.

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I think he was trying to say the label of "Chicago dirty politics" is a bit unfair to Chicago and to Obama. Today's revelations really do not change that. Blagojevich is a nutcase and does not represent mainstream Chicago or Illinois politics and has nothing to do with PE Obama.

[AZ Criminal JD]

12. I know you're not from Chicago when you say Blago does not represent the city

He does. He is not a nut. That is latest attempt by the MSM to protect their friends in Chicago. "Blago is just a nut and everybody else here is just fine. Move along now."

[DCBob]

14. Your comment is exactly what Rush Limbaugh was saying today.

Odd.

[stillcool]

10. Does Blagojevich mean that Chicago..

is dirty? Is the state of Illinois dirty?

[Cha]

2. Most of us know Obama wouldn't be in any

way shape or form involved in Chicago corruption.

[bigdarryl]

3. rethugs don't care they will still try and make something of this

[DCBob]

6. They will try but they will look stupid and desperate trying,

Obama is clean.

[depakid]

4. If Obama was dirty, Republicans would have gotten the goods during the election

and that would have been the October surprise....

[DCBob]

7. Teflon Obama!

Nothing sticks to the Mister Clean!

[depakid]

8. I think it's a little early to be drawing that conclusion

though one can hope!

At the very least, he'll get a honeymoon period- unlike Clinton, who was hammered mercilessly from day one.

[DCBob]

9. Well it's been two years of relentless attacks from left and right...

and Obama has brushed them all off. Sounds like teflon to me!

[depakid]

11. Once he's in office, it's cabinet members and staff he'll be accountable for

any one of whom could have a lapse.

[firedupdem]

13. I don't think it's early at all....Obama had chances to move up

rather quickly in any way he chose but he went and worked with the people. He has a desire to do what is right for the people. I don't think he's cut from the same cloth as a lot of other politicians.

[prostock69]

15. You are right, he is not cut from the same cloth as a lot of other pols.

If you all haven't read his book, "The Audicty of Hope", you should. He is FOR the people. He ran for office to change the world starting with our country. Period. He's straight as an arrow.