Hawaii overshadowed by Chicago for Obama library
But as the gears start to turn in the Obama machinery that will eventually develop the library, the focus has increasingly turned to Chicago, where Obama was first elected and came into his own as a national political figure. It is a place many of his advisers and staunchest supporters call home.
Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now Chicago’s mayor. Obama’s wife, Michelle, was born there, and her former chief of staff, Susan Sher, is leading a behind-the-scenes effort to lure the library to University of Chicago from her post in the university president’s office. It’s the same university where Obama once taught law and where his longtime senior adviser, David Axelrod, recently established a political institute.
So Hawaii officials have resigned themselves to the likelihood that the library, which will house Obama’s records and artifacts, will go to Chicago. If that’s the case, Hawaii is hoping for second-best: a presidential center, institute or think tank that can serve as a secondary base of operations for a young, ambitious ex-president.
“We really don’t see it as an either-or proposition,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who’s assisted the effort for years as a former lieutenant governor and state lawmaker. “We see no reason that the president has to be forced to choose between his two hometowns.”
http://m.washingtonpost.com/national/in-quest-for-obama-library-hawaii-plays-underdog/2013/12/28/6b3cc08a-6f9a-11e3-a5d0-6f31cd74f760_story.html
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