How did Obama get to Chicago?

[pscot]

University of Chicago is a shrine for conservative economists. It was the home of Milton Friedman, shock and awe and anti-Keynesian reaction. Was it pure chance that took him there, or was he led? If so, by whom? Who mentored him? To what extent is Chicago Law an adjunct of the School of Economics. If any there are any UC grads out there, what do you think.?

[QC]

1. The U. of Chicago was also the home of that fascist Leo Strauss. n/t

[undeterred]

2. The University of Chicago Law school is not

an adjunct of the Business School or the Department of Economics. I think the Law School has a diverse faculty - Obama was never a full professor.

This article in University of Chicago magazine from a couple of years ago gives a good background on the schools influence on Obama.

http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0810/features/obama.shtml

[pscot]

5. Thanks

Bookmarked for later.

[Catherina]

3. And then on to choosing Lieberman as his mentor in the Senate.

Inquiring minds want to know.

[WillowTree]

4. He drove straight east from NYC and took a right after crossing the Illinois border.

[Tx4obama]

6. Oh come on. Why did Obama teach at Chicago Law School? Because he lived near by.

Obama was already a practicing attorney in Chicago (for the same firm that Michelle had worked for) when he started teaching Constitutional Law at the Chicago School of Law.
There's no conspiracy behind this.

[HuckleB]

7. But, but, but... EVERYTHING is a conspiracy, MAN.

Don't you know that you can't believe anything except the stuff you make up yourself.

:beer:

[undeterred]

8. Yeah and just any old lawyer can pick up a teaching job

at the University of Chicago Law School.

[TBF]

10. He was a Harvard Law Grad - Chicago is also top ten.

He must've had someone call ahead for him of course (maybe a professor he impressed at Harvard knew someone at Chicago or something)... but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[Tx4obama]

11. Obama was not just 'any old lawyer'

From Wikipedia:

In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,<39> and president of the journal in his second year.<40> During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.<41> After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude<42> from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.<39> Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention<40> and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,<43> which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.<43>

In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.<44> He then served as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.<45>

Edited to add link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_obama

[undeterred]

23. I didn't think I needed the sarcasm icon.

[TBF]

9. Not quite -

He was a summer associate (that is what you do after your first & second yrs of law school - before you pass the bar. The firm was Sidley Austin and she was his mentor while he was there (summer is 12 weeks at most - usually less). He then graduated from law school and worked as a visiting professor at Chicago. He joined a small civil rights law firm (not Sidley Austin which is a large corporate firm), and also continued to lecture at Chicago Law.

I don't think there is any conspiracy - it would've been in proximity to their home and it's an excellent law school.

There are problems with Mr. Obama, but this isn't one of them.

[pscot]

13. In other words

you don't know. I'm not conspiracy theorizing. I'm trying to understand him. It's a legitimate question. :tinfoilhat:

[Tx4obama]

19. Here's a link below that will help you understand him

Full cached article here: http://tinyurl.com/2ahtjs2

[mix]

12. The Law School is conservative.

It shares a similar neoliberal philosophy as the Econ department, specifically the emphasis placed on unregulated markets and rational choice.

Much has been made of the conservative faculty’s fondness for Obama...Many of Obama’s economic ideas, however, can be traced to Chicago. Cass Sunstein, who’s starting a new job at Harvard University this fall (he’ll maintain a visiting position at Chicago), makes the case: “Though he’s not a dogmatic follower of Milton Friedman, Obama is someone who is fully appreciative of the virtues of markets and how regulation can be counterproductive.”
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0810/features/obama.shtml

There are very liberal, even radical departments at Chicago--History and Anthropology in particular--the bastions of intellectual conservativism at the U of C are the Law School and Econ Department however.

[whistler162]

14. He didn't take a right at Albuquerque!

I think you need to start thinking.

[Tx4obama]

15. One of Obama's mentors

Excerpt:

Among prominent federal appeals court judges in the 1990s, Barack Obama was known as "the one who got away."

In 1990, Obama had been elected the first African-American president of Harvard Law Review, which made him a blazingly hot prospect as a law clerk for one of the top federal appeals judges, who in turn would almost certainly send him on to the Supreme Court as a clerk.

But with a remarkable certitude that still amazes his friends and elders, Obama said no to all that, preferring to return to Chicago after graduating in 1991 to resume community and civil rights work and to write a memoir that turned into a best-seller, "Dreams from My Father."

SNIP

"He had a lot of chutzpah, doing what he did," recalled Abner Mikva, who actively pursued Obama as a possible clerk when he was chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Mikva, a former Democratic congressman with his own Chicago roots, ended up a good friend and mentor to Obama and is an active supporter of his presidential bid. "I often tease him about how he could have been a clerk for me," says Mikva, now 81 and on the University of Chicago Law School faculty. Of Obama, Mikva says, "I have not been this impressed by a political talent since the day I saw FDR in a parade as a boy."

Full cached article here: http://tinyurl.com/2ahtjs2

[MadBadger]

16. Are you fucking kidding me?

This takes the cake for idiotic Bullshit

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. No. Yesterday, a different DUer repeated the right wing smear that Obama called his grandmother

a racist. Several other DUers snickered out cowardly agreements. That was clearly the lowest moment on this board perhaps in its whole history. This particular conspiracy nonsense is just run-of-the-mill borderline racist/manchurian candidate stupidity. It doesn't come near yesterday's despicable content.

[Lord Magus]

21. DU seems to be overrun with Repug trolls.

Kind of like the Democratic Caucus in the Senate.

[pscot]

22. I''m trying to get a handle on how the President thinks

and why he thinks that way. You think that's bullshit? I want the backstory. This is what reporters used to do, back in the day when we still had reporters. I misjudged the guy. So what did I miss?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. United Airlines, probably.

[MadBadger]

20. You dont think he's a Southwest Midway kind of guy?