* The SouthtownStar dumps some much-needed cold water on all the “We’re gonna get us some pork!” cheerleading since Barack Obama’s Tuesday victory…
If we expect a pipeline of cash to flow to the Chicago area from the White House, we’re in for a surprise. […]
Since Election Day went to Barack Obama, locals have been busy dusting off their wish lists for the new president, writing down items such as a new Chicago Transit Authority circle line connecting the North and South Sides, an airport for the south suburbs and some extra dough to rebuild clogged expressways.
In Little Rock, Ark., home to President Bill Clinton, the presidential pork never came.
“That doesn’t happen,” said Skip Rutherford, dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. […]
Rutherford could not point to one particular project delivered to his area while Clinton was president.
Arkansas politics is dirtier and more self-centered than ours in many ways, so if they didn’t get anything in Little Rock, we may not either.
* The Post-Dispatch’s story doesn’t throw cold water on the idea of an Illinois Obama boom, but does include some reservations…
“There will be some concrete benefits” for Illinois, predicted Leo Ribuffo, a presidential historian at George Washington University in Washington. Among predictions by some is a change to the federal formula for dispersing highway money, which doesn’t currently favor high-population states like Illinois.
“If anybody in Illinois expects a New Deal ‘works’ program like LaGuardia Airport (FDR’s gift to his home state of New York), they’re going to be disappointed,” said Ribuffo. “But undoubtedly, the connections will help somewhat. … It’s going to improve Chicago’s image.”
* The tourism angle is already getting some play, however…
In Chicago and Springfield, tourism officials already are scrambling to capitalize, putting together new advertising strategies built around Obama’s life story and Illinois’ role in it. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism is adding him to its online “Presidential Trail” feature, which already outlines the Illinois legacies of Lincoln and Grant, as well as Ronald Reagan’s birthplace.
It will outline “Obama’s life and journey throughout Illinois,” especially Springfield’s Old State Capitol, where he launched his presidential bid, said bureau spokeswoman Ashley Cross. “We think there will be national and international interest.”
* Related…
* Congressman Jackson for Obama’s seat
* Congressman Gutiérrez Wants Obama’s Senate Seat
* eBay gives some love to Obama, public gives little to Blagojevich
* A Presidential ‘Help Wanted’ Sign
* Introducing The New Chicago Seven
* Obama lets pals do the talking
* Local reps praise chief-of-staff pick
* ILLINOIZE: Yes Kids Can. And Boy, Did They.
- blog it - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 9:54 am:
Real estate executive Valerie Jarrett, a member of Obama’s transition team and a trusted family confidant, is President-elect Obama’s choice to replace him in the Senate, reports ABC 7’s Ben Bradley.
- GofG - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 10:01 am:
Daley has a whole new, big-time, ambassador to the Olympic Committee. That should be a boon for Chicago but probably not for Illinois.
- wordslinger - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 10:05 am:
What money? AIG got another bump over the weekend. Detroit’s next.
Obama’s first order of business will be figuring out what exactly Bush, the fed and Congress have put us on the hook for the last couple of months. I don’t there’s a lot of money to spread around.
The West and South have dominated in that area for a long time.
- Bill Baar - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 10:37 am:
There is going to be a Presidential Library in Hyde Park for sure… I’m betting on the West Side of Washington Park.
- Conservative Republican - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 10:51 am:
“Arkansas politics is dirtier and more self-centered than ours in many ways”….
Really? I think that’s quite a tough sell. Last week, an academician wrote in the Wall Street Journal that in 1960 BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans stole massive amounts of votes in the famous Kennedy-Nixon election of ‘60.
My personal experience also supports the contrary conclusion. Among a million anecdotes, I will only share this: In 2004, I walked a precinct in Milwaukee for President Bush. One lady very calmly told me she would not vote Republican; I shrugged and walked on. Fifteen minutes later, she had tracked me down in her car to profusely apologize for her “rudeness”. Not only had I never experienced that in Northern Illinois, when I walked a precinct in Chicago for McCain the other week, one resident screamed [FROM RICH MILLER: Please don’t swear in comments in any way] at me from his first floor window.
Tell me this isn’t a dirtier environment.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 10:53 am:
CR, all you did was point to Illinois stuff, some of it from 48 years ago. Not a compelling comparison argument.
- The Doc - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:01 am:
What Chicago alderman and the rest of the drooling statewide pols have failed to consider is that Congress, not the president’s administration, metes out federal dollars. If Obama is true to his word about eliminating pork and the like, there’s little evidence to suggest IL will disproportionately benefit from a Chicagoan in the White House.
- Pat collins - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:07 am:
What benefit, if any, can be expected from “executive decisions”.
Remember back in 88, 89 when there was going to be a super collider built? Well, IL had Fermilab, and Argonne, but somehow Texas got chosen as the site.
It was not built, but you see the point.
- Hanging Chad - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:12 am:
Just Announced: Governor Rod Blagojevich announced today that he will auction off the Senate seat being vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama. Starting bid: $1-Billion.
All proceeds will go to Friends of Blagojevich.
- Fan of the Game - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:19 am:
I hope the Obama campaign is buying its cold water by the truckload because expectations are astronomical and not only in Chicago.
- Leroy - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:30 am:
Bill Clinton is no Barack Obama.
We need to expect more from Obama.
- wordslinger - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:35 am:
–Remember back in 88, 89 when there was going to be a super collider built? Well, IL had Fermilab, and Argonne, but somehow Texas got chosen as the site.–
Pat, do you remember how that went down?
A couple of days after the ‘88 presidential election, the Department of Energy held a press conference to announce the site for the $4 billion project. Just when the press conference was to start, three Texans walked into the room — President-elect Bush, House Speaker Jim Wright, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Lloyd Bentsen (the defeated Dem veep candidate) The site? Surprise — the Dallas/Ft. Worth suburbs. That was clout, my friends.
Four years later, Bush was gone, Wright was gone and Bentsen was on his way to being a short-timer Secretary of Treasury. The collider was abandoned as a $2 billion hole in the ground.
Although the collider was not a boon to science, a quick google shows that it did contribute to film history as the site for scenes from Jean Claude Van-Dammes “Universial Soldier: The Return.” So it wasn’t a total waste of money.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:41 am:
It will be interesting to see how many infrastructure projects, some 30 miles or more away, will be “necessary” for the 2016 Olympics, should Chicago be selected for this 3-week “event”.
- NimROD - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:43 am:
===Obama’s first order of business will be figuring out what exactly Bush, the fed and Congress have put us on the hook for the last couple of months.===
Are you saying Obama wasn’t aware what he voted for in the bailout?
- steal your face - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:45 am:
I’m not a political insider or strategist, but or course the pork won’t roll into Illinois! IL is a blue state that Obama already has wrapped up, and everyone should already know that pork is just a word for “bribe for votes.” Since no Obama votes are needed for IL, no pork will roll our way. It wont be long now before the expectations begin crashing down to earth.
- Bill Baar - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:47 am:
…put us on the hook…
Not to mention GM lowering a hook…
- wordslinger - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:49 am:
NimROD, I’m suggesting no one really knows how this will play out, including everyone who was for it.
- Bill Baar - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 11:49 am:
The collider’s tunnel by-the-way would have gone right under my house. It was not welcomed by everyone in Kane and it mobilized an opposition that stayed active in local politics for years…
- Will - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 12:04 pm:
Little Rock did get a new Presidential Library that helped revitalize downtown and paid for a light rail trolley system. So at least they got some benefit even if they had to wait a decade for it.
I don’t think people need to worry. Durbin doesn’t appear to have any problems steering pork our way.
- Phil Collins - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 12:13 pm:
I hope that the pork, to all states, will decrease. Each year, the federal government gives about $400 billion to state and local governments, although that spending isn’t authorized, for the federal government, in the Constitution. Congress should eliminate that spending, saving about 13% of the federal budget. If they do that, they would pass an across-the-board 13% tax rate cut. When federal tax rates are lower, state and local governments would be able to change their tax rates, to ensure that they’ll receive enough money, without federal help.
- Cheswick - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 12:21 pm:
I recall reading somewhere that the only presidential library to be funded from U.S. tax dollars is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. All the rest got private funding.
- Fan of the Game - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 1:04 pm:
===I recall reading somewhere that the only presidential library to be funded from U.S. tax dollars is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. All the rest got private funding.===
Abe had a headache and wasn’t up to attending the $1,000-a-plate fundraisers.
- curious george - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 1:40 pm:
How is Arkansas politics dirtier than Illinois?-Do they have more governors with felony records?-or more public figures under investigation?-It certainly would give an Illinoian a bit of an uplift to know of a state more corrupt than this one-or at least be able to rationalize our situation as something common to other states
- Anon - Monday, Nov 10, 08 @ 2:46 pm:
Illinois may not get much out of it directly, but when President Obama decides to sell the While House and the Executive Office Building simultaneously, but in separate sales, he’ll just naturally turn to Chicago realtors with some prior experience in this kind of deal.