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Yes, He Can

Slate asks whether Obama can say no to Daley. We ask: what’s Daley ever done for Obama?

By Ben Joravsky

November 13, 2008

Hour after hour, day after day, I field calls and e-mails from the Daley haters of Chicago, bemoaning our fate now that Barack Obama has won the presidential election: Mayor Daley’s going to have too much power now, they say. Mayor Daley’s going to rule the world. Now the national media’s joined the chorus. This week Slate ran an article asking “Can President Obama say no to Mayor Daley?”

To which I say: You’ve got to be kidding.

For starters, the mayor’s best friend in politics is not Obama but President George W. Bush, who has given him virtually everything he’s wanted—including the green light to dig a big hole beneath Block 37 for a CTA superstation that will in all likelihood never be built.

As I’ve said before and will undoubtedly say again, if you want to see firsthand the awesome influence Daley has on Bush, drive west on Irving Park to the Dead Zone. That’s the northeastern corner of Bensenville that Daley’s turned into a ghost town—dark, deserted house after dark, deserted house—by running out the residents so he can plow over the property and expand O’Hare. This unprecedentedly audacious land grab was almost wholly funded by the federal government.

The more I think about the central premise of the theory that Obama will be puppeteered by Daley, the more ludicrous it sounds. I doubt Daley even believes it. Why else would he rush the Midway Airport lease deal through the City Council if not so Bush-appointed aviation bureaucrats in Washington could approve it? At last month’s hearings on the lease deal, Daley’s top aides conceded they could not count on as much support, much less quick support, from the next president.

If anything, Daley will have to join the long line of supplicants already looking for goodies from the president-elect. There will be many mayors with their hands out. Denver, Philadelphia, Detroit, Richmond, Raleigh, Miami, Orlando, and Pittsburgh—these are just some of the cities in the swing states whose mayors and leaders did a hell of a lot more to elect Obama president than Daley ever did.

Daley never lifted a finger to help Obama until it was convenient and beneficial for him to do so. He didn’t support Obama when he ran for state senator, and he didn’t support him when he ran for U.S. senator. He did endorse him at the start of his presidential run, but by then Obama was already an international phenomenon far greater in significance than Daley. I would argue that Oprah’s endorsement was far more beneficial to Obama than Daley’s. So the real question is, can Obama say no to Oprah?

The Chicken Littles suggest that Daley has the kind of control over Obama that Angela Lansbury had over Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate. As if Daley had the foresight to position Obama to run for office in order to gain more control for himself—give me a break. This argument assumes that Obama—one of the shrewdest, savviest political operators I’ve seen in a long time—is a hopeless naif when it comes to politics. Obama was happy enough to return the favor of Daley’s presidential endorsement by endorsing the mayor in his reelection campaign. But now that he’s in the White House, he doesn’t really need him anymore.

Yes, Daley and Obama share advisers, including Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and the mayor’s brother William. But so what? Chicago’s a one-industry town when it comes to politics. Anyone who’s anybody will have some six-degrees connection to Daley. The pertinent question is this: if push comes to shove, will players like Axelrod or Emanuel remain loyal to Daley, the mayor of a city, or Obama, the leader of the free world?

One favor Obama can do for Daley is to use his prestige to convince the International Olympic Committee to award the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. But the big issue that can keep Chicago from getting the nod is funding: Daley’s never spelled out how he intends to pay for an Olympic binge, and pretty much everyone outside of Chicago knows it. To make it happen, Obama would need to pledge billions and billions of federal dollars to help pay for the Olympics. But with a world of trouble on his hands, including the collapse of the housing, banking, and auto industries, I don’t think he’s likely to commit funding to something the Republicans would hammer him with every day until November 2012.

Moreover, Obama just might be susceptible to pressure from his erstwhile south-side neighbors who one day, I hope, will finally awaken to the realization that the Olympics is a scam that will drive up their taxes, snatch away their parks, and give them nothing in return.

Hey, if Mayor Daley can have an Olympic dream for Chicago, so can I.   

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