Monica Showalter . . . "What the $1.5 billion boondoggle will be about is blocking community roads, putting public park space off limits, fundraising for Obama causes, community organizing, shoveling pork for South Side denizens such as basketball courts, and...satisfying President Obama's gargantuan ego.
"Where did anyone get the idea that taxpayers owe ex-presidents this kind of golden parachute? This is Ozymandias (Pharoah Rameses II)-style excess. Or if you want to be much less charitable: Mobuto stuff. Much of the complex itself will be privately funded, of course, but taxpayers are certainly going to be paying for millions of it, and there doesn't seem to be a cap on how much.
"Even the private-sector funding is a bit eyebrow-raising. The kind of money this project requires is the kind of money a presidential campaign to the finish requires. That takes fundraising, and small-dollar donors aren't going to cut it. Big-dollar donors might. But that kind of donors – from Goldman Sachs-style investment banks, Hollywood heavies like Harvey Weinstein, foundation fat cats like George Soros – are going to be asking something in return. And what's more, if they have already given the money, it's worth looking at what they got in return. Post presidencies are notorious for bribe cash to flow in in exchange for favors already delivered. And as the Clintons demonstrated so ably, leftist presidencies are historically for sale."
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| UIC Releases Ambitious Obama Presidential Library Proposal Below: artists conception of visitors at the library.  |
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