Obama and Blago cont.

As the story wears on and gains traction, the press is going to do demand to know every single detail as to Obama's relationship with Blagojevich, much as it has done with other shadowy Chicago figures such as Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers.
Coming from Chicago is both a plus and a minus for Obama as he has said that he was "toughened up" by the rough and tumble of urban politics, but also has to deal with the legacy of a city and state famously rampant with corruption, machine-politics, back-scratching, and deal-making.
Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin from Politico release the first seminal article here. It's definitely worth the click and basically shows just how much the wind has been taken out of the Obama transition's sails. (Do you think Obama will still have those daily press conferences?)
Also from Ben Smith's blog:

"The reality of Obama's relationship with the Chicago Democratic machine is more nuanced, and has been widely explored. He certainly isn't a creature of the machine, wasn't born into it like Daley or married into it like Blagojevich. He came up in the reformist enclave of Hyde Park, but -- as is often the case with a strong machine and talented outsiders -- after he emerged, the organization's leaders saw his promise, and gave him some leeway, and he didn't mount a crusade against their transactional political system. To have refused, for instance, to support Blagojevich in 2006 would have been a major reformist statement; Obama didn't make it, and instead backed the incumbent governor. Obama's tighest inner circle -- Jarrett, Emanuel, Axelrod, Bill Daley -- is composed of people at least one degree closer in, and who each made millions in part off their various connections.

Perhaps the best way to see him is as a neutral in the (lopsided) battle between machine and reformers in Illinois. That's the stance he took in a defining battle, the 2006 contest for the presidency of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Reformers fault him for failing to support their champion; but he didn't endorse the machine favorite either. He stayed on the sidelines, and kept his focus on the White House. You can accuse him of cowardice for that, or you can grant him that he had decided to devote himself to larger causes and ambitions than Illinois political reform."