Meet the New President: Greg Craig

Gotta hand it to Barrack Obama: he has studied at the feet of the Master himself. No, I'm not talking about the Phophet or Lincoln or even Jesus, I'm talking about Mayor XX of Chicago.

Mayor XX, also know as Mayor Mumbles or Mayor Richard J. Daley, is The Guy. He is the guy behind the guy who now is playing President in the Oval Office. There are lots of those "guys" in Chicago. There are the spokesmouth guys, then the guys who get the job done.

Mayor XX is famous here in Chicago for wrecking Meig's Field, a small but convenient little airport on Chicago's lakefront, by sending bulldozers out in the cover of night to carve big X's in the runways. It really didn't matter to Mayor XX that there were still airplanes on the ground that were stuck there after carving his initials in the tarmac. He mumbled about how beautiful would be the trees that would sprout from where X X marked the spot.

Hence, one more royal title for The Guy, Mayor XX.

Mayor XX rules Chicago by fiat. He raises a pinkey finger and mumbles and things get done. Some things are good and some leave airplanes stranded. Nobody votes on it, though. It's a done deal -- ordered by The Guy who is The Guy.

It's the Chicago way.

In a less politically correct day, I'd slap President Obama on the back and say, "Atta boy!" Our new President has stayed true to his roots. He knows that he needs a guy behind him in order to continue voting "present", like his tenure in the Illinois State Senate.

That guy is high powered Washington DC based lawyer, Greg Craig. Craig is the White House Counsel to President Obama. Craig is telling Obama where to put the X's. He is The Guy getting the job done, and he has a pretty guy on stings actually signing things.

President Obama has made it clear in the first few days of his administration that he plans to copy the style of Mayor XX, but with much better diction. He has signed 5 Executive Orders in these few days. Not bad. Both Bushs signed none in his first few days, Carter signed one, as did Clinton. The Guy behind the guy behind the guy must be smiling back here in Chicago. This is the way to run a country -- if you are Fidel Castro.

Speaking of whom, Castro, Obama's Guy Craig represented in the case of Elián González during the Clinton administration.

It does take some practice to put your X on things correctly. President Obama didn't know the contents of "his" Executive Order when he signed the bill to close Guantanamo Bay prison base in Cuba. Take a look-see at about one minute ten into this video. He needed the help of His Guy, Craig. Obama, when asked later in the video about what will become of our favorite suntanned killers, he tossed it off to His Guy, Craig. Craig, we are to imagine, was squirrled away just behind the flashbulbs and cameras scribbling it on the fly. There would be another Executive Order on that one as soon as Obama's Guy wrote his Executive Order.

Ah, Barrack, you done us proud here in da old city. You got a Guy who will tell you when and how to get things done and when to sign your X. It's the Chicago Way, Mayor XX's way, and you learned it well. No point in denying it. You can't get anywhere here in Chicago and Illinois if you don't have a Guy. Ain't nobody above it.

Somewhere, in a wheelchair with a shawl draped across his legs, is Dick Cheney. Right now, he is picking up the phone and calling George W. Bush. In between lagging heart beats Cheney is telling Bush that it's kind of ironic that he was supposed to be The Guy, but in reality he wasn't even a contender.