Do You Know How Obama Won his Seate Seat?

The political corruption of the city of Chicago in a time honored tradition that has been well documented through the years. As the state of Illinois turned "blue" through and through in the late 90's and early 2000's the corruption spread statewide creating something called the "Illinois Combine". The "Illinois Combine" is described by author David Freddoso as "a bipartisan group of public officials who ran a statewide operation resembling Chicago in it's disregard for good government.

Illinois Democrats and Republicans who wanted to stay in office knew they had to "go along to get along". Exceptions to this rule were generally rare and dealt with promptly. One exception was Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was elected in 1998 by narrowly defeating Carol Mosley Braun after using over 13 million of his own money to fund his campaign.

Senator Fitzgerald had no intention of "going along to get along". Senator Fitzgerald requested the appointment of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the "Illinois Combine". Thanks to the efforts of these two Fitzgerald's some "bad actors" were prosecuted and several, from both parties, were sent to jail. Sadly Senator Fitzgerald efforts were not appreciated and without the support of his own party he chose not to run for reelection.

This provided an opportunity for the Democrats and specifically for Barack Obama. However he had to win the primary first. There were several candidates and the early favorite was state comptroller Dan Hynes. Hynes would probably have won except for another candidate, Blair Hull. Hull, an eccentric multi-millionaire spent nearly 29 million dollars attacking Hynes. Hynes lead was beaten down and with a 10 point lead over Hynes and Obama Hull was poised to win the Senate seat.

Thirty days prior to the primary election sordid details of Hulls divorce appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Senator Barack Obama was born. Obama, of course, had nothing to do with the release of this information, or did he. One of Obama's advisors had known about this skeleton in Hulls closet for over two years. That advisor, David Axelrod is still working with and for Barack Obama as his chief strategist and speech writer. This could all be coincidence but Axelrod had known for two years about Hulls marital disgrace. Information which didn't become public knowledge until after Hull had destroyed Obama's other competition, Dan Hynes. Oh, and the story was run by Axelrod's former employer, the Chicago Tribune.

Obama had won the Democrat primary and now faced Republican, Jack Ryan. Ryan was an attractive candidate who had a chance of beating Obama. Unfortunately he also was divorced. The Chicago Tribune sued to have Jack Ryan's divorce documents released and the details of the couples sex life completely derailed his campaign. Ryan withdrew from the campaign and Republicans tried to replace him with a good candidate in the short time they had left but could not do so. So, if Obama becomes President and destroys this country you can blame Mike Ditka. Ditka was approached but chose not to run and he was the only Illinois Republican who had a chance at that time.