Robert L. Terrell

I am skeptically focusing at the moment on the ominous scandal currently unfolding in Chicago in response to the Illinois Governor’s creative efforts to allegedly benefit from his right to appoint a successor to Senator Barack Obama.

My inner curmudgeon leads me to strongly suspect that, at the very least, we are witnessing the conclusion of the period during which Barack Obama is seen as an ethereal figure hovering in a pure universe, high above the common give-and-take engaged in by the grifters who dominate much of contemporary politics here in the United States.  Separate and apart from his magnetic political persona, which has become the vessel for a critical mass of the nation’s dreams, Barack Obama is, as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright accurately asserted, “a politician.” 

As such, there is a strong possibility that during the course of his career he has engaged in behavior common to the breed.  This does not necessarily mean he is not an honorable man.  It does mean that it is extremely difficult to rise through the kind of system he matriculated without being considered a trusted member of the inner circle of the state’s most powerful political movers and shakers. 

Unfortunately, a startling large number of the movers and shakers at the apex of the Illinois political system from which Obama emerged to run so magnificently for national office, are acknowledged, and admitted criminals.  Some, including the last Governor, are currently in prison.   Given all this, I will be greatly surprised if President-elect Barack Obama emerges unscathed from the political crisis currently unfolding in Chicago.  Get ready for drama.