DENVER—Barack Obama’s chances of winning the White House won’t be harmed by his home city’s reputation for shady politics or his connections to a 1960s radical, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday.
Daley predicted voters will elect the candidate with the best plan for creating jobs amid a faltering economy.
“America needs more confidence in people going to work. They just don’t have that,” Daley said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Daley, Chicago’s mayor since 1989, chairs the fractious Illinois delegation, where some people barely speak, others accuse one another of racist slurs and the unpopular governor is under federal investigation.
But Daley says none of that will rub off on Obama—and neither will his background in Chicago’s notoriously crooked politics. Jobs and contracts go to political donors. Aldermen and governors go to jail. Officials leave office and pull strings to let their children take over.
Critics from both ends of the political spectrum allege that Obama should have spoken out against corruption more, especially after he was overwhelmingly elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
Daley said there is political corruption everywhere, not just Chicago.
“Go to New York. Go to Washington. Go to Philadelphia,” Daley said. “All politics is rough and tumble.”
Politics didn’t take up all of Daley’s time. He also took a few minutes to visit an oxygen bar next to the AP’s office at the Democratic convention. Putting a little tube in his nose, he sampled 92 percent pure oxygen infused with lavender (for relaxation) and then apple (health and happiness).
“I feel good. We should get all the delegates to try this,” he joked afterward.
Daley dismissed Republican criticism of Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a former member of the radical and violent Weather Underground but now an education expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Obama and Ayers have served together on the boards of social service organizations. They live in the same neighborhood and Ayers held a political event for Obama when Obama first ran for office.
Conservatives claim Obama should have nothing to do with someone who endorses violent protest. Obama condemns Ayers’ actions and says he barely knows the man.
Daley said he knows Ayers well and considers him a respected education advocate. There’s no reason to shun Ayers today for what happened amid the turmoil of the 1960s and early ’70s, he said.
“It’s 40 years later or more. Things are completely different,” Daley said.
Daley advised Obama not to focus on attacking John McCain, despite complaints from some Democrats that he should challenge the Republican candidate more aggressively.
“I don’t agree with that. I think America is sick and tired of everybody being negative,” Daley said. “I think you spend less time on him and really tell the American public what you’re going to do. I think this election, they want someone to get it done.”
The top of that to-do list has to be improving the economy, he said.
The election will come down to winning over the undecided 10 percent of voters, he said, and they want to know which candidate will help them find work.
“People are mad,” Daley said. “People are scared.”
Daley wants to bring the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago, and he thinks electing a president from the city will help when the International Olympic Committee makes its pick next year. He cited the roles of Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair in bringing the games to, respectively, Russia and Britain.
“The president or prime minister of any country is vitally important to move the agenda,” Daley said, noting Obama lives only a few blocks from some of Chicago’s proposed Olympic venues.
