Obama or Clinton? It’s a tough choice for some

Bauer said he knows several of the presidential candidates and decided to help Obama after a personal request from the senator. Obama contacted him around Thanksgiving to discuss a possible run for president and seek Bauer’s support if he did run.

O’Keefe, however, praises Obama, but plans to back Clinton. That means she’ll have all the fundraising connections and political wisdom O’Keefe gained by putting together Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign in Illinois and working in the Clinton White House.

On the other hand, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a longtime Bill Clinton ally, has endorsed Obama. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, despite occasional digs at Obama in the past, has proposed moving up the Illinois primary to give him a big early victory.

‘He’s hiding under his desk’
U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, however, is conspicuously avoiding any public comment on whether he’ll stick by his plans, announced before Obama was considering a run, to back Clinton.

“He’s hiding under his desk,” Emanuel’s spokeswoman, Kathleen Connery, joked.

He would be a valuable asset for any campaign. Emanuel was one of Bill Clinton’s key campaign strategists and is regarded as one of the country’s sharpest political minds. Plenty of people around the country owe him favors for his key role last year in Democrats winning control of the U.S. House.

Of course, Obama and Clinton aren’t the only players in the Illinois fundraising game. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, for one, is trying to take advantage of his years as a trial lawyer by courting the state’s legal community.

Despite past support of Obama, prominent Bloomington lawyer David Dorris is enthusiastically supporting Edwards. Dorris said he got a friendly call from Obama after a newspaper story mentioned he was an Edwards backer.

“He said, ‘Dave, you underestimate me.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t, Barack. The problem is, you underestimate the difficulty of what’s waiting for you.’ “

While Clinton is trying to mine political contributions in Chicago, Obama and other candidates aren’t about to give her a free pass on New York.

New York attorney Jeh Johnson, for example, a top Air Force official under Bill Clinton and an adviser to the Kerry presidential campaign, had decided to stay on the sidelines of the 2008 campaign until Obama emerged as a potential candidate.

“Of course, I have reservations and misgivings about not being with the Clintons in 2008,” Johnson said. “I don’t think Senator Clinton would be a bad president, but Barack is somebody who I find particularly appealing.”

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