Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

September 6, 2008 11:26:43 PM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

« Back to the grid | Next story »

What Hyde Park Tells Us About Obama

Posted Jun 9, 08 7:37 PM CDT in Politics,  US 

(Newser) – "It is the most racially integrated neighborhood in the nation's most racially segregated city," Andrew Ferguson writes in the Weekly Standard of the area in south Chicago Barack Obama calls home. It's a college town, a lefty enclave where the moneyed mix with boho bookworms, and "NPR announcer" types  walk the streets wearing wire rims and backpacks. But Hyde Park isn't an ordinary college town, it's an unusually isolated one—an island in the middle of a slum.

Politically, it's not part of Chicago politics, Ferguson writes, making Obama, "a politician of Hyde Park pedigree, outside the normal bloodlines of Chicago's black politics." There are advantages to that—being outside the machine, "he stayed clear of all the corruption that's involved with that." But he also had to prove himself to blacks.  "Barack is viewed in part to be the white man in blackface in our community," one rival said.

Source Weekly Standard

0 comments | Print E-mail | Digg Seed this on Newsvine Add this link to Del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Related Newser Stories

  • Note to Right: Hyde Park Is Neither Liberal nor Elite

    Jun 11, 08 1:23 PM CDT
    Note to Right: Hyde Park Is Neither Liberal nor Elite With the right cranking up to use Obama's Chicago neighborhood as a weapon against him—the Weekly Standard depicting it in a long piece as an liberal elitist bastion—Wall Street Journal columnist (and former Barack neighbor) Thomas Frank says it’s complete bunk. Not only do Hyde Park-ers have a median income below the national and Chicago medians, but if the college town has a political legacy, it’s a conservative one! More »

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks to reporters after he and his wife Michelle voted in the Illinois Primary.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
The home of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.   (AP Photo)
The restaurant Pizza Capri as seen on Wednesday, July 11, 2007, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.   (AP Photo/Jerry Lai)
A car drives past Pizza Capri Wednesday, July 11, 2007, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.   (AP Photo)
Weekly Standard cover   (WeeklyStandard.com)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
Our editors also recommend:

Threads (1 of 6)

Tags

Barack Obama  • Chicago  • University of Chicago  • elitism  • Bill Ayers  • Hyde Park


Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

Today's Most Popular


Other US Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »