It's been forty years since Hizzoner Richard J. Daley presided over the infamous 1968 Chicago convention when Chicago cops mercilessly beat the protestors, reporters and others with impunity.
And his son Mayor Richard II redeemed the city with as he pulled off the successfully pulled off the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
Now Daley the younger is in a unique position, mayor of the adopted hometown of his party's nominee Barack Obama.
Obama's catchword this campaign season is change, and Daley made sure to pepper his pro-Obama speech to the delegates in Denver with that all-important word.
"The American people are looking for change and for leadership," Daley proclaimed. "They know that the same old politics won't work."
The same old politics won't work? Really your honor? They seem to be alive and well in Chicago.
This comes from the mayor whose administration presided over a fraudulent hiring system in violation of federal court orders, one that favored his supporters over the qualified. Simply put it was a scam that cost city taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements to benefit his political machine and those loyal to him.
Then there was the 40 million dollar hired truck scandal that rewarded some of his top campaign contributors, and even some with mob ties with no-work trucking contracts -I could go on.
Here's the question.
Does tonight's call for Obama's change coming from an old school pol like Daley(who has often resisted change when it comes to cleaning up city hall) undercut Obama's promise of a new kind of politics?
Weigh in here.
