Sweet’s Wednesday Obama clips. Campaign adds-gasp-lobbyist as advisor. Former Rezko lot next to Obama pad for sale--for $1.5 million.

SHARE Sweet’s Wednesday Obama clips. Campaign adds-gasp-lobbyist as advisor. Former Rezko lot next to Obama pad for sale--for $1.5 million.

HIGHLAND PARK, ILL.–A varied menu cooked up Wednesday in the Obama clip kitchen:

The Wall Street Journal dives into the Obama team’s micro targeting drive for new teen voters who will be eligible to vote in the Iowa caucus.

My deep digging Sun-Times investigative colleague, Tim Novak, writes about how the value of a vacant lot next to the Obama homestead (once owned by the tainted Tony Rezko’s wife) is for sale and has jumped in value. LINK

The New York Sun reports the Obama campaign–on a drive to rid Washington of lobbyists influence– hired a tax lobbyist as an adviser. This as the Senate is dealing with a proposed tax hike on private equity firms

WASHINGTON Senator Obama of Illinois is blaming Washington lobbyists for stalling a proposed tax hike on private equity firms, but he can look no further than his own campaign team for one of the culprits.

The Democratic presidential candidate recently hired a top executive at the lobbying firm retained by the Blackstone Group to urge lawmakers against raising its taxes. The executive, Moses Mercado, is not yet on the campaign payroll as an adviser, but he took a leave from his job as a senior vice president at Ogilvy Government Relations late last month LINK

Scott Helman of the Boston Globe overview on the 2008 politics behind the tax proposal

Following this morning’s report in The Washington Post that the Senate is unlikely to pass a tax hike on private-equity firms, Barack Obama and John Edwards are both trying to use the issue to differentiate themselves from Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.

Critics of the current tax structure for private-equity outfits say such firms benefit by having some of their earnings taxed as capital gains instead of income — a far lower rate. But the industry has battled a tax overhaul mightily, saying it would damage the economy. For now, it appears they’ve succeeded.

Even though Clinton, too, favors the tax hike, Obama and Edwards used the opportunity to pounce on what they see as a liability of Clinton’s. Obama seized on Clinton’s recent remarks that lobbyists “represent real Americans.”

LINK

Hearst columnist Marianne Means writes Obama needs to step it up LINK http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/334833_means10.html

The Latest
Mayor Brandon Johnson did not commit to spending a specific amount of public money to lakefront infrastructure improvements, but vowed that whatever public money is invested, it must be committed to creating more housing and jobs and “a sustainable, clean economy.”
White Sox fans from all over will flock to Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday for the team’s home opener against the Tigers.
Many kids in the audience came dressed up. I would recommend parents encourage it, as their youngsters will undoubtedly make new friends at intermission finding others who love the characters they do, or who identify with other ones.
They mayor made it clear he will not remove the City Council member for appearing at a rally where an American flag was burned to protest U.S. support for Israel.
Archer Courts, 2242 S. Princeton Ave., will soon get a new hot water system, ventilation system and rooftop solar panels through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.