Put that Olympic spirit into education!

What good can come from Chicago’s fourth place finish? How wise is it for some Republicans to “dance on the grave?” Thom talks Olympic politics and more on FOX-Chicago today:

'If Obama knows, Obama goes ...'

We're just seven days away from the big Olympics decision and the world is buzzing about whether President Obama will make a cameo. Recent reports say that he will, and Thom Serafin, President and CEO of Serafin & Associates, Inc. agrees.

“If Obama knows, Obama goes,” said Serafin on FOX-Chicago this morning.

Advance teams have been deployed to preserve the option. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has coyly remarked it is “absolutely” a possibility. All this leaves the president in perfect position to bring home the trophy.

“You’ve got to hand it to Lori Healey, she’s been running the 2016 bid and she’s got everybody going,” said Serafin, noting Governor Quinn, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama to be among the members of Chicago’s star-studded bid delegation.

There was no shortage of topics to talk about in Illinois’ political world today, with a new Chicago Sun Times report saying that Rahm Emanuel wanted then-Governor Rod Blagojevich to appoint Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool as a placeholder in Congressional District seat.

Is this, as Claypool says, “insanity?”

Serafin suggests things may not be so black and white.

“We won’t know until the tapes come out,” said Serafin, noting that the law requires an election—not an appointment—and implying this was something the tactical Emanuel surely understood. However, Serafin also notes that federal courts reporter Natasha Korecki, who reported the story, is very good and "rarely wrong."

“Rahm knows he’s not going to be in the White House forever,” he said. “Everyone knows he wants to go back to the House of Representatives and he’d be a heck of a lot better Speaker than the current Speaker.”

The President is selling -- is America buying?

President Obama is selling the healthcare plan, one television appearance at a time while a national controversy over ACORN continues to brew.

Is the President overexposed? Where do Illinois politicians stand on ACORN?

President/CEO of Serafin & Associates, Inc. Thom Serafin attacks these issues & more on FOX-Chicago this morning.

Obama 'out-foxed' right on schools speech

Despite all the brouhaha preceding President Obama’s speech to students, Obama managed to deliver a speech long on feel-good themes and short on the controversy that critics had anticipated, Thom Serafin, President and CEO of Serafin & Associates, Inc., says during this appearance on Fox News Chicago.

“The White House kind of out-foxed the conservative pundits on the other side who were complaining about what they might do, what they may not do,” Serafin says.

The White House was smart enough to take the president’s speech in this direction, causing the barrage of rhetorical grenades lobbed in advance of the speech to fall inert, Serafin says.

“The president is going to tell the children this morning, ‘If you’re quitting on your education, you’re quitting on your country. Wash your hands. Make sure you don’t go to school if you’re sick. Don’t get other people sick in your school,’” Serafin says, referring to pre-released text of the president’s speech. “Those are wonderful messages, that’s God, apple pie and country.”

In this appearance, Serafin also discuses the resignation of Van Jones, Obama’s environmental czar, amid reports that Jones made inflammatory remarks about Republicans and joined a petition questioning whether the federal government had a role in permitting the Sept. 11 attacks.

While he is distinguished on environmental matters, Serafin says that Jones “is off the center on some of these other issues.”

“Communism went out with the Brady Bunch,” Serafin says. “It’s been a long time since we look at communism as an attractive alternative.”

Also in this appearance on Fox, Serafin discusses the evolving political dynamics of the war in Afghanistan.

'He became a wonderful legislator'

Having dedicated much of his career to passage of health care reform, Sen. Ted Kennedy in passing could help stir the momentum his fellow Democrats need to finally see their initiative become reality.

So says Thom Serafin, President and CEO of Serafin & Associates, Inc., in this segment on Fox Chicago News.

Serafin referred back to Kennedy's remarks at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York, when Kennedy conceded defeat in his presidential bid.

"For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end," Kennedy said at the time. "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

“That is what Ted Kennedy brings to the health care reform package," Serafin says. "Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us. But fortunately for the Democrats, they’re going to use those words to have to pass some kind of health care reform.”

Serafin speaks about the paradox of Kennedy - “He was cursed with the legacy of the Kennedys” - and about his own experience meeting Kennedy on Capitol Hill in the 1980s, when Serafin worked as an aide to Sen. Alan Dixon of Illinois.

“He became a wonderful legislator,” Serafin says. “More important, he was a human being in that body. Most of that work gets done off the Senate floor. I worked there with Alan Dixon during the 80s. I used to ride the tunnel and he was in the cart with us. (He was a) very congenial, wonderful person and a terrific legislator. He served one-fifth of the time that we’ve had a U.S. Senate under our Constitution. That’s a long time.”

Meanwhile in Illinois, the race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Barack Obama is heating up with the addition of David Hoffman, the inspector general for the City of Chicago and a former federal prosecutor, as a candidate. He is expected to face Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Urban League President Cheryle Jackson in the Democratic primary.

Serafin speaks about the changing dynamics of this race, noting that David Axelrod's former media firm is working for Hoffman's nascent campaign. Axelrod, of course, is political adviser to President Obama.

Though Giannoulias has long had a personal relationship with Obama, Serafin suspects that Obama's organization may now be firmly behind Hoffman.

“Alexi is the state treasurer of the state of Illinois. He’s got the county chairmen’s endorsement behind him. He’s got an organization behind him. He’s got a couple million dollars. He’s got everything going for himself in this particular race," Serafin says.

"He’s a Democratic elected official for the state of Illinois and all of a sudden Barack Obama’s organization says, ‘Uh-uh, we’re going to run somebody else in this race because we don’t think you can beat (Republican) Mark Kirk in the general election.’ So this is really about stopping Alexi – it’s not about anything else – because they don’t think he can beat Mark Kirk.”

Healthcare, protests & presidential politics

The latest polls show that Americans are angriest at Congress-- not the President. Could a re-awakening be at hand?

President of Serafin & Associates Inc. Thom Serafin thinks so. On FOX-Chicago today, Serafin said the recent, high-emotion town hall meetings are reminiscent of grassroots protests from the 60's.

Serafin said the lack of oversight of the bailouts coupled with Americans' frustration with losing their life savings, has conveyed strong message to the public: Government is not to be trusted.

Serafin also warned that while 'divide & conquer' tactics may be good for the campaign trail, it is far from good for the country.

"He (the President) speaks for everyone!" Serafin said. "He can't divide as President-- he has to pull people together."

Independent voters may be starting to notice, Serafin added.

"A Great Teaching Moment"

The much-touted White House “beer summit” may have helped President Obama’s image but probably did little to advance America toward improved race relations, says Thom Serafin in this appearance on Fox Chicago News.

“It was a good media opportunity and it was good healing for his public relations images around the country,” Serafin says. “But as far as the racial relationships and discussing that issue, it was an opportunity, I think, lost.”

Still, Serafin, President and CEO of Serafin & Associates, Inc., says the beer summit – promoted as a chance to heal racial tension – amounted to more than simply a presidential photo op. He says Obama seized an opportunity to focus public attention on a positive message and away from his plummeting poll numbers.

“It’s not necessarily (just) a photo op,” Serafin says. “It’s serious business for the president and his media advisors. Listen, the August recess could not come soon enough for them. His numbers have been plummeting as far as a job approval is concerned. He had to show some sense of understanding here. He brought people together. He took advantage of the opportunity.”

Serafin notes that Obama pushed the beer summit as a chance to bring Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. together for a conversation with Cambridge, Mass. Police Sgt. Joseph Crowley, who arrested Gates after Gates broke into his own home upon returning from vacation. The incident quickly became a flashpoint for racial tension.

Obama’s initiative followed the president’s notorious faux pas – saying the police in Cambridge “acted stupidly” by arresting Gates. Obama later backpedaled from the remark, while pushing the beer summit.

“Once you go off teleprompter, off message, you get into these types of situations,” Serafin says. “They put this beer summit together to make it look like a regular guy (situation). But nobody drinks Bud Light out of a glass. It’s always out of long necks.”

At the beer summit, all four of the gentlemen in attendance – Obama, Vice President Biden, Gates and Crowley – drank their frosty beverages from glasses rather than bottles.

Serafin also talks during this appearance on Fox about the federal Cash for Clunkers program and the federal government’s failure to illuminate the details of spending through its stimulus program. Among states, Illinois ranked last in availability of information about the stimulus spending.

“Information is knowledge and knowledge is power,” Serafin says. “And that’s how government is run here in the state of Illinois – you keep information from people.”