Obama's Political Chicago Roots

A great piece from Chicago Magazine on Obama, his background, his milieu, his friends - is worth checking out. It fills in much of the blanks that people have about Obama who have not troubled to read his excellent books.

Called The Friends of O, written by James Merriner - the piece is divided into parts:

1. Old line Dems
2. Black entrepreneurs
3. University of Chicago gang
4. Political Pals
5. the trouble cluster

It's a lengthy, meaty piece and worth a full read if you really want to get to know the guy.

Fascinatingly, the comments section has it's own smear and fight the smears thing going on. In case you didn't hear, after a reporter last Thursday asked Obama himself about the rumor that Michelle had said "whitey" on tape, Obama decided it was time to get more aggressive in fighting the rumors and directly asked his supporters to help fight back. And his campaign created a web site to help.

I guess we're listening.