The Chica­go Way: How Oba­ma Began Trans­form­ing Amer­i­ca Into Cook Coun­ty

The Chicago Way: How Obama Began Transforming America Into Cook County

For all his promise, Barack Oba­ma was a man of few accom­plish­ments before being elect­ed to the high­est office in Amer­i­ca. But he actu­al­ly did achieve some­thing when it came to nation­al pol­i­tics. He brought the Chica­go Demo­c­ra­t­ic Machine mod­el into the nation­al are­na.
I grew up just north of Cook Coun­ty, Illi­nois, in which Chica­go is locat­ed. For 21 years, from 1955 to 1976, May­or Richard J. Daley ran his town as a true big city par­ty machine Demo­c­rat, com­plete with patron­age and all the oth­er creepy-crawly intrigues to be found when turn­ing ove …