Daley blasts Giuliani convention speech
Mayor Daley today denounced as “laughable” former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s claim that Barack Obama “immersed himself in Chicago machine politics.”
Giuliani’s one-liner about Obama’s political origins was one of the highlights of his keynote address at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. It was the red meat that delegates love to hear. The line played to thunderous applause from the GOP faithful.
(AP)
Daley was not amused. He’s never been all that enamored of Giuliani. He’s even less of a fan now.
“I couldn’t understand it. In 1979, I think I ran for state’s attorney as an independent. I don’t know where we get this — this idea that there’s a big Democratic machine going on,” Daley said.
“Chicago and the metropolitan area is very Democratic and the state is. [But] there’s no machine. I thought it was laughable. That’s what Democrats and Republicans have to do at conventions: yell at each other. But, in the long run, people are much smarter and can understand that there’s just a lot of political rhetoric going on.”
The facts substantiate the mayor’s claim about the machine —at least in part.
Daley ran for state’s attorney in 1980 and mayor in 1983 without the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party.
He never forgot the snub. That’s at least part of the reason why, after being elected mayor in 1989, he created a new machine — comprised of political armies like the Hispanic Democratic Organization — to work around the Democratic party structure.
The strategy worked like a charm until the 2006 conviction of the mayor’s former patronage chief on charges of rigging city hiring to benefit the soldiers in the mayor’s political army.
As for Obama, he was not allied with Daley when Obama first ran for the state Senate in 1996, but he had the mayor’s support in his 2004 U.S. Senate run and this year’s presidential bid.
In back-to-back speeches, Giuliani and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sought to portray the presidential race as a stark choice between Barack Obama’s style and John McCain’s substance.
Once again, Daley strongly disagreed.
“You have to understand Barack Obama. Watch him in the Illinois Senate. Watch him in the U.S. Senate. He is a good speaker. But also, he’s gonna roll up his sleeves. He kind of reminds me of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Daley said.
As for the embattled Palin’s widely-acclaimed convention speech, Daley said he didn’t see it. But, he’s not surprised about the rave reviews.
“Never underestimate anyone [who] gets in the arena, in the rink to compete for president and vice-president. Regardless of what you may think of them, they must have a lot of courage and determination and discipline to get in that,” Daley said.