President Obama’s Chicago homecoming Thursday came against the backdrop of a mad scramble by Windy City leaders to win the bidding for his presidential library, a push that has gotten messier than Obama’s allies would have ever imagined.
Chicago is the perceived frontrunner to house facilities that will likely shape the president’s days after he leaves the White House. Obama has always been linked to Chicago, the city where he got his start in politics and celebrated both of his presidential victories.
“It’s always fun coming home, but this is special for me,” Obama said in announcing the designation of a trio of national monuments Thursday, just a few blocks from where he started his career as a community organizer.
Those leading the library selection process updated Obama Thursday on their deliberations, the White House noted. The Barack Obama Foundation is expected to unveil the site selection at the end of March.
Given his biography and the speculation that he will return to the city following the completion of his second term, it would seem obvious for Obama to select Chicago as the site for what amounts to a presidential shrine.
It’s not so simple.
The University of Chicago’s bid for the library is contingent on setting aside 20 acres in either Jackson Park or Washington Park, located on the city’s South Side.
After heavy lobbying by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Park District earlier this month agreed to transfer the land to the city if the Obamas choose to put the library there, which has upset many Chicagoans.
That development seemed even more off-putting, some argued, on a day when Obama returned home to talk about the need to preserve and celebrate America’s national parks.
The fight over the presidential library has pitted natural Obama allies against one another: environmentalists versus those hoping to be a part of the president’s enduring legacy.
It has also raised alarm bells in some Chicago corners that Obama could choose Columbia University in New York City or the University of Hawaii for his presidential library.
Some experts on presidential libraries say the amount of consternation surrounding the selection process is unprecedented.
“I’ve never seen it at this level before,” said Anthony Clark, a former House staffer and expert on presidential libraries, who has a book coming out in March on the subject. “It’s the expectation of the transformative power of the library to the community. They’ve all felt it would be good for them. A lot of people are putting a lot more faith in the library being able to change people’s lives than any library has ever done before.”
When recent media reports suggested that first lady Michelle Obama preferred New York City for the library, much of Chicago went on high alert. This much is certain: the city is taking the bidding war very personally.
“It would be a slap in the face if Obama didn’t choose Chicago,” said a veteran Democratic consultant based out of the Windy City. “Sure, the bid has its flaws. But this is his home. That trumps everything else — it has to.”
Technically, Obama was born and grew up in Hawaii. He graduated from Columbia University and then attended Harvard Law School.
Though Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, has led Chicago’s lobbying efforts, he continues to encounter messaging problems.
Critics say it makes little sense for a president devoting so much of his tenure to environmental causes to carve out that much green space for his personal benefit.
“A potential lawsuit is not the foundation upon which to build an institution which represents the legacy of your life’s achievements,” wrote the group Friends of the Parks in a letter to the president and first lady this week, telling them to squash the idea to build on parkland or risk litigation.
“It is difficult to comprehend … that you would consider the confiscation of this important public open space asset as a construction site,” the Chicago group added.
However, Chicago has an advantage over fellow finalists New York City and Hawaii: a stable of political heavyweights who actually have the president’s ear.
“I would be stunned if the library were not in Chicago, and deeply disappointed because it’s so much part of his legacy. Barack Obama spent so much time trying to revive the South Side of Chicago,” former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod told Bloomberg Politics last week. “Chicagoans claim him in a way that New Yorkers just don’t. It would be a terrible blow, frankly, to the city and, I think, his legacy … if it didn’t go there.”
