A Chicago Blog

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m not an Obama fan. But as I look into the Chicago Annenberg Challenge stuff, I’m a little concerned that there just isn’t a there there. At most, it looks like we’ll find out (a) that Barack Obama is a supporter of government-run public education and (b) that [...]

John Kass writes this morning about the UIC Library’s refusal to release papers related to the Annenberg Challenge:
First the librarians told Kurtz yes, come look. But by the time Kurtz landed in Chicago, the librarians changed their minds. The donor of the documents hadn’t cleared his research. Perhaps they’ll let him look at the documents [...]

The media has been abuzz about McCain’s surge in the polls, or rather, Obama’s sag. I’m sure it is mostly to do with McCain’s presence at Rick Warren’s forum. Or the crisis in Georgia. But I can’t help thinking that just a small part of it could be that the All Obama Network, also known [...]

There’s an interesting profile of Bob Barr over at WaPo. Bob Barr is serious:
Is there any human being on the planet more committed to his seriousness than Bob Barr? The 59-year-old Barr is so into the Founding Fathers that most of his phone numbers, including his cellphone, end in “1-7-7-6.” He only reads weighty books, [...]

So just a minute ago I published a post defending the notion that Barack Obama is a socialist. Now Ed Morrissey reports that Obama, in an ideal world, would love a single-payer health care system. I think single-payer, which is just another way of saying government-run, health care definitely falls within the boundaries of socialist [...]

The big-labor blog, Progress Illinois is obsessing over Aaron Shock’s speech over the weekend calling Barack Obama a socialist. Then Colleen Callahan, Shock’s opponent, started attacking Shock, saying the statement proves he “isn’t ready for Congress.” I don’t know whether Shock is ready for Congress, but I know that the Obama camp should be on [...]

Actually, it’s David Axelrod who is the real brains–Obama’s Karl Rove, as a friend of mine likes to say. Nevertheless, I’ll give Obama credit for hiring the genius. They’ve taken the campaign into full fledged PR mode now and they are definitely breaking new ground. Instead of announcing a Vice Presidential pick in the standard [...]

I have to give Bob Barr credit for running a pretty libertarian campaign. He’s making it really difficult, for any self-respecting liberty-lover to vote for McCain or Obama. I mean, a presidential candidate talking about the Bill of Rights? Come on.
Check out his Bill of Rights Blackout Petition.

It baffles me. Seriously. The discussion we have over “negative” politics makes absolutely no sense. Yesterday I watched Andrea Mitchell repeatedly question campaign manager Rick Davis about why McCain is going negative and mischaracterizing Obama’s position. The interview devolved into a discussion of what “celebrity” means and whether it is “negative” to call Obama one. [...]

Nice! Now if we could only get this put to video.