Must disagree. Obama has little patience for or interest in the precinct captain’s work. He is a performer, not a patronage broker, and shows little evidence of caring about much going on outside his skin. People in a position to know have said that the Cuomos – father and son – are thugs at heart; Rahm Emmanuel’s appalling character is well known; it is difficult to believe that Obama has that level of emotional engagement with much of anything. He is not Chicago; he is the modal professional-managerial type you can find in large numbers in any metropolis or any college-town outside the South; he is the NPR target audience. That’s the problem.

There are so many agencies, Departments of …, courts, and schools in local, regional, state, and federal jurisdictions and societies that insure the fear.