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Chicago, politics and corruption have brewed a rancid stew for the better part of the last 100 years.

People forget that speculation about the cause of the Great Chicago Fire was made into a campaign issue. From the loose environment that created the Black Sox scandal to the 1968 Democratic Convention, Chicago represents a cauldron of political activity unseen in many places outside the Beltway.

No contrast has been as striking in this election as that of a man like Barack Obama emerging from the fires of Chicago politics. (Not even that contained in the phrase "John McCain, environmentalist".) While an idealist searching for change in how we conduct our politics, he has proven that he can scrap with - and beat - the best.

Obama even echoed the Sean Connery line you see above from The Untouchables recently.

Some are wondering aloud if Obama can escape unfettered, especially when Chicago is littered with names that could hurt him. Wright. Rezko. Ayers.

Even Emil Jones, Obama's mentor during his time in the Illinois Senate:

Just last month, the Chicago Democrat publicly ridiculed an attempt to block a pay raise for legislators by sarcastically declaring: "I've got to get me some food stamps."

Yikes.

David Brooks piled on last weekend in a column that was so full of sardonic talking points that some liberals were silly enough to agree with him:

But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.

But here's where Brooks got interesting:

This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.

A-ha! It's really sad that there had to be the perception of a tarnished Obama image for guys like Brooks to actually admire what Obama is doing. A campaign that is eschewing politics in the pursuit of political gain might be the cynic's view, but however you look at it, it is obvious that Obama knows what he's doing.

Build up your support with the message of hope, don't get played and don't play yourself.

You can be positive and not be a punk, you know. This is what many public conservative voices, save Sullivan, seem not to grasp. But the ability to not be "two Obamas", but to allow for the fact that one personality can be both Dr. Barack and Fast Eddie Obama at once - that's what is going to win Obama the White House.

Who knew that a guy could play by Chicago rules and still change the game? When are guys like Brooks going to realize that Obama is simply not the Democrat they've gotten used to?

Someone says that you're naive, weak and can't protect the country, and you tell him, "Bring it on"..

Someone hits you on public finance reform, you hit him on the environment.

Someone questions your VP vetter, you nail his chief advisor to the wall.

That's the Chicago way.