Operators are Standing By to Take Your Calls!

Are Republicans proud of the insanity they've unleased? I guess so.

Everybody Loves Barack

This just in: Obama is Irish. No kidding. Kenya has claimed him as one of their own, but now they have competition. Everybody loves a winner.

Your Moment of Zen XII

Chicago, Illinois: 51st & Cornell
November 25, 2008

Obama Palling Around with Chess Players?

More evidence has surfaced, beyond that already available, that Barack Obama’s administration will be the Chess Presidency. Friday’s New York Times confirmed that until the massive Secret Service security bubble closed in on him following his election, the president-elect got his hair cut at the Hyde Park Hair Salon, on Blackstone just north of 53rd Street. Those familiar with the neighborhood scene know that chess is played at that establishment, yet the obvious suspicion—that Obama may go to the salon to play chess—is never mentioned in the mainstream media. Why?

Considering that the Leader of the Free World can get his hair cut anywhere he wants, why does he go to this particular barbershop, if not to be around woodpushers? Is it just a coincidence that Obama patronized this salon? Are we to believe that the senator only went in for a trim and never once stopped to play a game of five-minute blitz? C’mon.

Let's face it: the 44th president likes chess.

You can understand why Obama has kept mum about his ties to chess. If his tenuous links to Billy Ayers were controversial during the campaign, imagine what would have happened had his connection to the Royal Game come to light. He would have been pilloried by the nation’s trogs, that's what. Just imagine: at the very moment he was being denounced as an elitist for his superior intelligence, Ivy League degrees, and impressive accomplishments, news of his affection for something as brainy as chess could have been the final nail in the coffin of his campaign. I can only assume it was a wish to keep his love of chess under wraps that led Obama to choose Joe Biden as his running mate rather than the obvious choice, Elizabeth Vicary.

By the way, if you want to reach Obama on his Blackberry, better do it soon.

See Your Food—for Free

Click on the screen a few times to enlarge the slide show.

Barns for Barack

How the chess candidate plays in the heartland.

The People Have Spoken

Here are the results of our recent poll. I think it’s clear who people want for vice president.

Can We Get the Senator a Bluetooth?

Was that State Senator Kwame Raoul I spotted talking on his cell phone, handset in hand, while driving yesterday evening? Details: Illinois license plate #13, with the label "Senate Official"; late-model Toyota at 53rd & Woodlawn, Chicago, approximately 7:55 PM.

What would Barack Obama think of his Illinois Senate successor flouting Chicago's no-hands cell phone ordinance?

Probably not much. I hear he has bigger issues on his mind these days.

At Long Last, Closure

Next item: Obama's running mate. Will he choose the lady from New York?

Obama's Running Mate?

Once again, read between the lines, and the latent presence of chess in this clip is hard to miss.

Wiping Off the Dirt

This clip hardly needs commentary, though I would point out that one of the hidden subtexts of the speech is obviously chess. Can you spot it?

Chess and the Presidency

Hat tip: Susan. On the surface, the candidates are discussing Iraq, health care, the economy, and immigration. But is this year’s election really about chess?

Obama on Education

He doesn’t mention chess by name, but clearly it’s implied in “a whole host of other things.” Obama wants a broad curriculum full of enrichment activities is how I read this; more evidence that he’s a chess guy. And the rest of what he says makes sense to me, too. What do you think?

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day, especially to those who have the day off.

(revised Monday PM)

News Flash: Obama Doesn’t Read Blogs

He may play chess, but according to veteran Chicago Sun-Times political writer Lynn Sweet, Sen. Barack Obama doesn’t read blogs.

Not even Susan? Not even Mig? How does he keep up on all the USCF dirt? And being from Illinois, how could be possibly not read chessdad64?

Do the Obamas Play Chess?

We chess people feel so marginal that we’ll sometimes grasp at anything that offers hope of pulling us into the mainstream. Last month it was reports that actor Heath Ledger, who died tragically at 28, was a chess player. How much of a chess player? That’s not clear. Some people said he played often in Washington Square Park. That’s all we needed to hear. He was just like us, and we just like him.

Now, based on a single word in a New York Times profile of Michelle Obama, we are again tempted to allow our hopes of acceptance to be bouyed. According to the article, playing chess was one of several things Mrs. Obama did as a kid to develop her mind (hat tip: Paul and Susan). According to Susan, Michelle’s husband, Senator Barack Obama, also enjoys the royal game. Several commenters on Polgar’s site say he writes in his first book, Dreams from My Father, of learning chess from his grandfather and stepfather.

It makes sense. Both Mr. and Mrs. Obama are frightfully smart, and they live in Hyde Park, one of the most chessically inclined neighborhoods in Chicago, so how could they not like chess?

To put it in perspective, however: no one named Obama is a member of the U.S. Chess Federation, and neither member of the would-be first couple has a FIDE rating as far as I can tell.

And while in years past I would sometimes spot Mr. Obama doing the family shopping at the now-defunct Hyde Park Coop, I can’t ever recall seeing him or his wife among the woodpushers at Starbucks or the 53rd Street Borders. If the Obamas do play chess they’ve obviously also made room in their lives for other things. They must have that balance thing going on, which is sometimes popular with certain chess players. I guess that’s okay for some people.

Has anyone out there ever played chess with either of our famous neighbors?

Endgame: Speaking of chess breaking into the mainstream, today a real chess player has gotten a write-up in a real newspaper read by ordinary people. Rob Krause of Renaissance Knights and a coach at state champ Stevenson High School is profiled in the Daily Herald.