Fighting over Obama library

[nmbluesky]

Poll question: Fighting over Obama library

Obama library fight pits Chicago vs. Honolulu

As President Barack Obama prepares to battle with Republicans for a second term, another fight is already brewing: where to enshrine his legacy once he leaves office.

The effort to play host city to Obama’s presidential library is being complicated by the peripatetic life he has had. His diverse background — a fixture of his political brand — is now fueling a debate at a time when the White House would like to focus on anything but where to store the Obama archives.

The University of Hawaii, which Obama’s parents and sister attended on the island where he was born, claims the president as a native son and is actively pursuing his presidential library.

But while Perkinson is busily working on the University of Hawaii’s pitch, the University of Chicago — the city where Obama turned to politics and launched his first campaigns for office — isn’t ceding an inch of presidential ground.

The University of Chicago is playing like the cool front-runner. It’s a luxurious vantage point given the president and first lady’s ties to the institution; he lectured on constitutional law, and first lady Michelle Obama, who was born and raised on the South Side, was a top executive there for years. Many of the first couple’s closest friends still live there, and Obama’s top White House advisers have connections to the city as well as the institution.

The Hawaii Legislature passed a resolution asking Obama to choose his birth state for his presidential library. There is an “Obama Presidential Library in Hawaii” Facebook page, which is not to be confused with the “Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum Proposal” at obamaohana.org. The website, dedicated to Hawaii’s efforts to win the library, resembles Obama’s presidential campaign design and logo.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46773.html#ixzz193ZuUwkn

What do you prefer Obama Library.... Chicago or Hawaii?

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46773.html#ixzz193ZWGJOb

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[RichGirl]

2. I think Chicago... simply because it's more accessible to the most people.

Hawaii...maybe a 50 foot carving of his head in one of the highest mountain...mt. rushmore-like....would be nice.

[yurbud]

3. I would rather he rack up the accomplishments to memorialize there by turning his back on Wall St.

[DrDan]

4. Kenya - it should at his birthplace

[nmbluesky]

8. umm I can't.. do that

are you sarcasm?

[DrDan]

13. obviously - didn't think it need be said . . . . but . . . .

[bigwillq]

5. Can Obama decide?

:shrug: Not sure how this works.
After all, it's his library. Does he have a say where it's located?

[former9thward]

21. The President is the only person that has a say.

[vaberella]

6. Why not both?! Their both important for both his life. n/t

[PoiBoy]

7. I vote Chicago...

n/t

:hi:

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[frazzled]

10. Here's one reason to opt for Chicago (or not)

Hawaii already enjoys substantial economic benefits of tourism. The areas on the South Side of Chicago around the University of Chicago most certainly do not. It would be a boon to the community, providing jobs in local restaurants and shops, and perhaps even a freakin hotel on the south side, of which there are now exactly none.

That said, keep the library, if it goes there, on the outskirts of the campus. The students don't need that kind of distraction: busloads of gawkers flooding the quads. Although it would be a funny sight.

[nyc 4 Biden]

12. Considering the Chicago School economic theory is one of the reasons why our economy blows...

..I say we choose them.

The Chicago school of economics describes a neoclassical school of thought within the academic community of economists, with a strong focus around the faculty of The University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles. It is at times referred to as freshwater school of economics, in contrast to the saltwater school based in coastal universities (notably Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley). The University of Chicago department, considered one of the world's foremost economics departments, has fielded more Nobel Prize laureates and John Bates Clark medalists in economics than any other university.

The "Chicago School" is perhaps one of the better known American "schools" of economics. In its strictest sense, the "Chicago School" refers to the approach of the members of the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago over the past century. In a looser sense, the term "Chicago School" is associated with a particular brand of economics which adheres strictly to Neoclassical price theory in its economic analysis, "free market" libertarianism in much of its policy work and a methodology which is relatively averse to too much mathematical formalism and willing to forgo careful general equilibrium reasoning in favor of more results-oriented partial equilibrium analysis. The Chicago school is associated with neoclassical price theory and libertarianism in its support of lower taxation and private sector regulation, but sometimes differs from pure free-market economics in the support of government-regulated monetary policy by some Chicago School economists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_of_economics

e.g. Milton Friedman

eta: more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltwater_and_freshwater_economics

[WellsStreetHell]

14. Please, not Chicago!

As a Chicagoan, I feel Obama's not one of us. He has more of a Pacific Islander/Hawaiian mentality,and it shows in his dealings with his enemies,as no Chicago pol would let themselves get rolled over on so many issues. Nothing personal against the president or P-I/H, just an opinion from someone who has been following Chicago politics for 35 years here.

[somone]

15. A great president deserves many edifices and monuments

Two libraries should be the minimum

[PurityOfEssence]

16. Oh, and don't forget the Cathedral, the D.C. Monument, and the mile-long ceremonial frieze

The latter will wait until we see what those accomplishments are, but his stalwarts repeatedly assure me they're coming and should be pre-celebrated.

The Cathedral should be for his systematic de-secularizing of the government and our campaigning traditions.

As for the Monument itself, the mind boggles...

Personally, I think it's a filthy crime that he hasn't already been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his not-yet-written reflections on his Presidency. Those Scandinavians are just dicks.

[ClarkUSA]

17. I'm still waiting for John Edwards to be awarded the Hedge Fund Poverty Fighter Nobel Prize.

Personally, I think it's a filthy crime that those Scandinavians didn't create one by now, given John Edwards' incredible contributions in curing poverty since the 2008 campaign season, where he pledged to dedicate his life to this issue. His stalwarts keep telling me that he's been misunderstood so I guess that must be why those dicks in Norway are ignoring this great man's dogged determination to help others without any thought to his own needs.

[Forkboy]

22. Meta-satire!

I never knew you had it in you!

[ellisonz]

18. Honolulu

We need it here because so much time and energy have been spent on conspiracy theories that Obama as being from Hawaii has not really resonated here like it should. We Hawaiians vote in low numbers, our schools are poor, and people have great confusion regarding identity. There are a number of good sites for it here on the Windward side or on the Leilehua plain.

I remember during the campaign it was disputed whether or not Obama had experience racial discrimination in Hawaii in the 1970s. Many Mainlanders could not even cognitively understand what life is like here. Obama is Hawaiian more than anything else. :fistbump:

[Fearless]

19. Why does it matter?

[Arkana]

20. I think Chicago will ultimately get it, mostly because it's more accessible.

[Autumn]

23. Prepares to battle with Republicans for a second term?

:rofl: He isn't yet halfway through his first term. My preference when it happens would be Honolulu.

[rug]

24. Phoenix. It's a good compromise.