9.30pm August 26 2008

Chicago, the political breeding ground of Democratic Party candidate Barrack Obama, is basically “one crooked mess” says prominent Tribune newspaper columnist, John Kass.

Kass tells Foreign Correspondent presenter Mark Corcoran that the Chicago Mob, known these days as “The Outfit” is still involved in corrupting politics in the city and

Obama had to learn to “look the other way” when sleazy deals were done.

‘The interests of the machine in Chicago is to do things the Chicago way and not go to prison,” says Kass.

Corcoran reports from Chicago on Obama’s extraordinary rise, from 22-year- old community organiser in the vast, mostly black, south side of Chicago to presidential front-runner.

City councillor Toni Preckwinkle has known Obama since the early days. She says he’s a hard headed political pragmatist who would never have garnered political support “if he was going to make public corruption one of the issues on which he stood.”