Never let it be said I can’t drive a joke into the ground:
Via Rich:
Benjamin Sarlin does a relatively short profile on Kwame Raoul:
As Barack Obama leaves the Illinois political scene (taking fellow Chicagoans Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett with him), the state known for its mad power scrambles has a doozy on its hands. The prize is Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, and it seems like every state Democrat is not-so-subtly announcing that he would like to have it. One name that has surfaced, if as a long-shot candidate, is Kwame Raoul, who already occupies Obama’s old seat in the state senate. You might call Raoul Obama’s Mini-Me. He’s young (44 years old), African-American, and has the kind of steely ambition that would have him follow Obama to Washington.
“We had pretty good success with a state senator the last time,” Raoul told The Daily Beast.
I actually think Kwame would be a good choice given the different problems with a variety of candidates and thus, because I think so, I doubt he has any chance in hell. That said, I think we’ll be hearing a lot more out of Kwame over the years. Sarlin mentions his work on a bill concerning gun sales to minors, but he has also been leading on an effort to get rid of the flat tax provision on income taxes in Illinois and has toured the state to discuss education funding reform.