[MRM]

This is a good debate. You came up with significant information that I hadn't heard of before. This is a legitimate and important issue to resolve. Truman was the product of the Pendergast Machine, yet he made his reputation in the Senate as a straight arrow who oversaw the Truman Commission into wartime corruption so fairly that he was respected on both sides of the isle. He went to the funeral of his Pendergast mentor while sitting VP and he aparently never enagged in corruption himself, although later in his administration some associates were less noble.

Then we have the LBJ example where the product of machine politics went into office in order to enrich his machine and paid off his backers with the ultimate jackpot once he reached his final goal.

It is important to know which of these two Obama is before the die is cast.