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If you tuned in to this summer’s Republican National Convention in Tampa or any number of the GOP’s stump speeches in the last few months, you may have been surprised at how eager Republicans are to bring up our fair city. Not to heap praise upon us, sadly (although vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was a big fan of Mayor Emanuel’s stand against the Chicago Teachers Union), but to tell the American electorate that President Barack Obama, who soared into office on the wings of a compelling, high-minded appeal for hope and change, is a slimy, old-school machine pol—”nothing more than a Chicago ward politician,” in the words of New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Perlstein trudged through the weekend rain away from his native island of idealistic reform, Hyde Park, to the far north side to discuss his piece with me.
