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As Barack Obama took on the role of salesman-in-chief for his Jackson Park presidential library last week, he engaged the audience with some blunt assessments of his adopted hometown.

Minority construction job numbers get rigged. Parks on the South Side aren't always as nice as those on the North Side. Neither are the playgrounds. And the first thing people mention about Chicago is its violence.

Not exactly traditional talking points from the fifth floor of City Hall. That's where Mayor Rahm Emanuel, already eyeing a 2019 run for a third term, is fine-tuning his political messaging: amenities and spending are being spread across the city, schools are improving, the police department is being reformed and the post-recession economy is booming with construction cranes and the jobs they bring.

Obama's comments undercut some of that, drawing surprised reactions and applause inside the South Shore Cultural Center at a time when Emanuel could stand to regain support among African-Americans who have soured on him since the 2015 city election amid revelations about the Laquan McDonald police shooting and a federal probe into the department.

"(Obama's) positions were frank. They are the types of things that we more often have said privately among ourselves, because they are difficult to put out there," said South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, who chairs the City Council's Black Caucus. "Now that he's out of office, he can make those type of statements with ease, and it was refreshing for someone to address them in terms that everyone understands."

Going forward, it's a political dynamic to watch. With the presidential library still in the planning stages, how often will Obama be back in Chicago? When he surfaces, will the former president continue to draw attention to the city's problems or embrace the mayor's work to fix them? Emanuel, after all, was Obama's first White House chief of staff, and in turn, the president greatly helped him become Chicago mayor in 2011 with an East Room send-off that ended up in a campaign TV ad.

North Side vs. South Side

The former president volunteering that Chicago's predominant national image is tied to its surging gun violence doesn't do Emanuel any favors.

"As somebody who has not been right here in Chicago over the last several years, whenever I visit, I tell people, 'Chicago has never looked more beautiful. It has never sparkled more,'" Obama said Wednesday. "And yet, if you ask a lot of people outside of Chicago about Chicago, what's the first thing they talk about? They talk about the violence."

The mayor already finds his city a frequent target of Republican President Donald Trump for its inability to tamp down the killing, most of it on the South and West sides. Last year, Chicago had 762 homicides, the most in two decades. So far this year, the city has seen a similar rate of killings.

Obama suggested he and Michelle Obama weren't willing to wait until the library's completion in 2021 to get started on their work. The couple announced they would start apprentice training programs for young adults and would donate $2 million to summer jobs programs "so that right away young people can get to work, and we can start providing opportunities to all of them."

The focus on summer jobs programs does endorse one of Emanuel's approaches to curtailing violence. The mayor, who declined an interview for this story, has increased funding for the city's program over the past several years.

The Rev. Torrey Barrett, a South Side pastor who attended the library event, said Obama's willingness to openly discuss the city's violence and other challenges also tackles a criticism the former president has faced head-on.

"When he was in office, a lot of people criticized him for not doing enough for Chicago, particularly the black community of Chicago," said Barrett, who is the CEO of KLEO, a community nonprofit in Washington Park. "Now that he's out of office, it looks like he's going to use all the weight that he has as an ex-president to address some of these issues that people have criticized him for."

In his remarks, Obama also made it a point to emphasize how the home for his presidential center, Jackson Park, doesn't measure up with parks in other areas of the city.

"Jackson Park is beautiful, but let's face it. ... When you drive through the park, it feels different than Lincoln Park does. It feels different than Millennium Park does. It is not used in the same way. It is not accessible in the same way. It does not have features of the same sort. It's not as good as it could be," Obama said. "So part of what we said is ... how do we transform the park, so it starts looking like Millennium Park and Lincoln Park and thereby stitches the entire city together, so that it's not things are that way on the North Side and a different way on the South Side?"

Obama made a similar point on inequity when discussing his vision for a children's playground area at his presidential center. He said he'd like to see features like climbing walls and other activities and programs.

"One of the things I wanted the community to do is look at what they're doing in places like Brooklyn in their parks, or Seattle in some of their parks, or what they're doing, frankly, in some of the parks up on the North Side in terms of how to engage young people," Obama said. "What we want to make sure of is the park is not just a dead zone."

Sawyer, the 6th Ward alderman, said such statements could pressure the city and Emanuel into doing a better job on the issue.

"The president can acknowledge a disparity does exist between the South and North sides and the West and North sides, and the mayor is starting to have to make accommodations and also acknowledge the disparity exists," Sawyer said. "I think the mayor is being pushed to make these changes. ... The president's comments help that."

A narrative that the South and West sides lack top-quality parks and amenities cuts against some of Emanuel's efforts on those issues.

The mayor frequently points to his Chicago Plays! program that he says built or renovated hundreds of playgrounds in neighborhoods across the city. Emanuel has been quick to point out he was the first mayor to place public art along the lakefront on the South Side. He's also highlighted the soaring suspension bridge along 35th Street, connecting Bronzeville to Burnham Park along the lakefront, which he has suggested is so beautiful it makes Lincoln Park envious.

Barrett, who has supported Emanuel, applauded second-term efforts such as hiring businesswoman and former U.S. Senate candidate Andrea Zopp as deputy mayor and an effort to siphon off money from downtown developments for neighborhood projects. But Barrett also thinks the spotlight on Obama's library will push Emanuel to do more.

"If you're going to be attracting people from all over the world to the South Side, you're forced to invest in it so people who come here are safe, have options and are able to take full advantage of the area," he said. "The president is making a charge, and I think the mayor will step up to make sure he meets that demand."

'Cook the numbers'

Obama also waded into the longtime Chicago controversy of minority contracting, with city ordinances requiring a certain percentage of public contracts to be dedicated to women- and minority-owned firms.

"We will exceed whatever historic or legal goals have been mandated in terms of minority- and women-owned business participation," Obama said. "I also want to point out, though, that and again, this is from somebody who lives here you know you can cook the numbers to make it look like people are participating. I mean, that's just true. I'm sorry."

The former president's comment about minority jobs cuts to an ongoing problem for Emanuel.

Black aldermen routinely complain the city is failing to bring enough African-American-owned businesses and black employees in on lucrative city contracts. The mayor mustered the bare minimum of 26 City Council votes last fall to let him borrow up to $3.5 billion to bankroll aviation projects, with several black aldermen saying they voted against the measure to send a message that the Aviation Department must do more to make sure the firms that get the bond work have minorities well-represented on their staffs.

At the same time, Obama said his foundation would not hire firms just because they are run by African-Americans, Latinos or women.

"If we have to choose between somebody who is not a woman- or minority-owned vendor and who does really great work and is going to make this whole thing terrific, and somebody who's raggedy, we will choose the folks who do the work," Obama said to a loud roar of laughs.

Sawyer said that remark drew a joke from Emanuel.

"I was sitting next to the mayor, and when the president made his statement about raggedy businesses, the mayor said, 'Alderman, do you really think I could say that at the City Council?' I said, 'No, you shouldn't, and you better not either,'" Sawyer said with a laugh.

Obama-Emanuel relationship

While Obama's airing of Chicago problems may make things uncomfortable at times for Emanuel, tying himself to Obama's legacy helps the mayor politically. Emanuel introduced Obama at the library event and spoke wistfully about his former boss' time in the White House and of his influence in Chicago something the mayor said he sees frequently when visiting schools to teach civics classes.

"Invariably, there is always a photo of the president or a quote of his, just like if you go to Boston, there is always a picture or a quote from John F. Kennedy, their favorite son," Emanuel said. "It's a sign of a strong connection we all have to our friend, our president. President Obama's contributions to the city of Chicago are already immeasurable, and his legacy is just beginning."

In his first bid for mayor in 2011, Emanuel aired ads with highlights of Obama praising him at his White House departure ceremony as outgoing chief of staff. In the mayor's 2015 re-election bid, Obama cut a radio ad for the mayor and visited Chicago days before the election to embrace Emanuel's re-election bid and announce the Pullman district would become a national monument.

Barrett said he believes Emanuel will continue to benefit from his association with the president, even if Obama draws attention to the city's challenges under the mayor.

"It shows that while there are some things that have happened, the president still supports him as the mayor of the city he's called home and the city of his library," Barrett said. "Will that sway everyone? Probably not, but as he continues to do what's needed and makes investments, I think he'll be successful again, and I think his relationship with the president will continue to help in the black community."

Chicago Tribune's John Byrne contributed.

bruthhart@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BillRuthhart

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Obama's talk of Chicago problems undercuts Emanuel's message - Chicago Tribune

More often than not and now more than ever, once a sitting president leaves office, he does the following: treats his former status as the most powerful person on Earth for the winning Lotto ticket it is. This is done by way of lucrative book fees, high-paid speaking engagements and sitting on a board or 27 for a pretty-pretty nice amount of money.

For former president Barack Obama, who can boast not only of being one of the few two-term Democratic presidents, but the first black one, such bonafides make him even more capable of making lots and lots of bread (please read bread in the voice of Stevie J.)

However, like many things associated with his time in office, what was once considered a norm for others is now suddenly an issue when Obama partakes in the practice.

For more than a week now, a fair amount of folks have been complaining about Obama netting $400,000 for a speaking engagement on top of the reported $60 million he and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, earned for their collective book deal. Newsweek writer Chris Riotta asks the following: How could it be that Obama, the smooth-talking Democratic candidate in 2008 who slammed Wall Street greed and resonated with the working class in a way his party has since been unable to authentically recreate, is living his post-presidential life like an elitist one percent?

The annoyances in this leading question are two-fold. One, to quote many a lovable Negro today, I just think its funny how suddenly the first black president has to be held to certain standards with respect to making money. After all, capitalism is a religion in America so its peculiar that anyone is perplexed that a former head of state of this capitalistic country wouldnt follow traditions such as seeing his post-presidency through the lens of Cash rules everything around me. Yet the likes of Riotta and others have been asking, Isnt $60 million enough?

Go ask a Clinton, a Bush, a Reagan or a Kennedy that. Speaking of, Obama and Bill Clinton biographer David Maraniss said Obama does not need the money and should not accept it. A Clinton biographer said this. The Clintons treated the White House like an AirBnB for big donors and made several fortunes after the Clinton presidency. But please, Barry, dont get too rich on em. Mind you, the types making these calls are well-paid white folks in media who currently earn far more than me and others like me for similar, if not less, work.

As for the 2008 Obama who slammed Wall Street, there is a bit of revisionist history at hand. Like a kid at the end of an old ABC family sitcom who suddenly saved the day with his naivet, Riotta quotes Obama in 2009 saying, I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street and ends his piece with this quip, Maybe that Obama should have a talk with 2017 Obama.

Obama notoriously raised more money than political opponents like Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney from Wall Street. He even raised more money than former president George W. Bush. The Obama administration has long had criticism over this, which is why when asked about the fee and criticisms over it, Obama spokesman Eric Schultz said: With regard to this or any speech involving Wall Street sponsors, Id just point out that in 2008, Barack Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in historyand still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since [President Franklin D. Roosevelt].

Thats long been an Obama retort to criticism over taking so much money from the Street. One could easily refute that by noting that many of the folks on Wall Street who played a pivotal role in the financial disaster of years past ought to be in jail. Nevertheless, when it comes to Obama and who hell take money from, hes long told you what he was about. The game is the game, and while you can criticize it as you see fit, dont rewrite history to make your arbitrary, hypocritical point.

Joining the well-paid media people admonishing Obama for taking $400,000 to speak about healthcare (imagine the man behind Obamacare doing such a thing,) are Democratic politicians with curious ambitions for 2020. Enter Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Obama is a friend of mine yet he finds his decision to be distasteful.

I just think it does not look good, Sanders explained on CNN. I just think it is distastefulnot a good idea that he did that.

Oh, Bernie. You still think 45s base cares all that much about their own economic well-being as opposed to the preservation of the white establishment and their frail lil egos. 45 has been categorized as an economic populist, but hes a billionaire and longtime scammer whos stacked his cabinet with just about all of Goldman Sachs and various other billionaires who know absolutely nothing. And yet, those deplorables still heavily support 45, as evidenced by poll after poll.

Whats actually distasteful is Sanders still not understanding that issues like reproductive rights, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia are just as much economic issues as his talking points about the ills of Wall Street. Go do your homework and get out of Obamas pockets. This is the part where one of his racist supporters will send me a comment calling me a neoliberal and cheerleader for capitalism. I have too much private student loan debt hovering over me to be any of those things.

Then theres Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said she was troubled by Obama accepting that speaking fee. However, she took it further than Sanders did. In an interview with the Guardian, Warren said, President Obama, like many others in both parties, talk about a set of big national statistics that look shiny and great but increasingly have giant blind spots.

Warren went on to say: The lived experiences of most Americans is that they are being left behind in this economy. Worse than being left behind, theyre getting kicked in the teeth.

So Obama doesnt know the lived experiences of most Americans, but Warren apparently does. Yet this is the same person who allowed Ben Carsons nomination as housing secretary (despite his only qualification being he can recite the story of Noahs Ark) to proceed before ultimately voting against him after being roasted like wings by liberals. Of course, Warren is promoting her new book, which is often a prerequisite for a looming presidential bid.

And remember: Warren also campaigned heavily for Hillary Dont Be Surprised If She Ask Where The Cash At? Clinton.

I agree with Slates Daniel Gross, who wrote that critics assign far too much symbolic value to activities that, at their core, have not been anathema to progressivism in the past and shouldnt be now.

This feels like a nonissue made into something larger so certain people who want to maintain their profiles further gain traction. It also comes across as misplaced anger. Even if Obama only accepted $25 and a Popeyes combo with an extra side of red beans and rice as payment for speaking engagements, it would not set a new tone and change the industry. I mean, the first black president was succeeded by a reality TV huckster who speaks as if reading more than three sentences will give him a huge migraine. A reality TV huckster who is using his position as president to enrich himself and his family. A reality TV huckster who wont even tell you how much he really makes and from whom.

Obama isnt the anomaly. Sunkist Stalin is. Go after that crooked president instead of worrying about the old one doing the same thing as all before him.

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Why Are People Worried About Obama's Speaking Fees When Sunkist Stalin Is the Real Scammer? - The Root

ThenSecretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius appears before the Senate Finance Committee in April 2014.

Kathleen Sebelius, the former Kansas governor and insurance commissioner who headed the Department of Health and Human Services under President Obama at the time the Affordable Care Act was passed, conceded after a fashion that some people might be better off under the Republican health-care bill that passed the House this week:

Having health insurance, Sebelius allowed in a Saturday-afternoon interview with MSNBC, does not ensure ones access to health care, but not having coverage, she said, is a virtual guarantee of not receiving sufficient care.

Rep. Tom Reed, facing constituent heat over his vote this week for the Republican health-care bill at a set of Saturday town halls in New York state, downplayed the specific criticism he and fellow Republicans have faced over bringing the legislation to the House floor before it had been scored by the Congressional Budget Office.

In a cable-news interview, he characterized the economists and budget analysts at the nonpartisan CBO as bean counters.

He went on to tell MSNBC, which credited him repeatedly with apparently being the sole Republican to schedule town halls this weekend, that he wanted to be able to look voters in the face and say he was part of the effort to move U.S. health care in the right direction. Arguing that the House-passed bill was, in his view, an improvement on the Affordable Care Act, he said hed let the politics take care of themselves.

The pure politics of the issue were more front and center as Speaker Paul Ryans press secretary, AshLee Strong, called out the tolerant left for swearing at [her] and making it more difficult for the media to reach her with inquiries. Also on Twitter, she argued that two past scorings by the CBO of Republican plans for repealing and replacing Obamacare ought to suffice.

See: A look at the path the health-care bill might take in the Senate

At the Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, +0.18% BRK.B, +0.13% annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., meanwhile, Warren Buffett colorfully, if menacingly, depicted ever-rising medical costs as the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness.

Echoing Sebeliuss point about those prospectively advantaged under the House Republicans health-care bill, Buffett said that, if that bill were to become law, his own costs, as one of the planets wealthiest people, would be 17% lower.

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Obama's HHS chief admits some people will be better off under Republican health bill - MarketWatch

The French election is very important to the future of France and the values that we care so much about, the former President Barack Obama says in a video endorsing the front-runner, Emmanuel Macron.CreditPHOTOGRAPH COURTESY EMMANUELMACRON / TWITTER

Where was Barack Obama on the day that Republicans in the House of Representatives dealt a potentially mortal wound to the AffordableCare Act, his signature domestic achievement? In Franceat least, on French Twitter, where a video of Obama endorsing Emmanuel Macron for President waspinned* to the top of Macrons page. The video is vintage POTUS 44, Obama in high dad mode. With a flag pin in his lapel and a silver tie to match his silver hair, Obama fixes the camera with that familiar sober, sympathetic gaze. Ive always been grateful for the friendship of the French people, and for the work we did together when I was President of the United States, he begins, as French subtitles appear in a hip sans-serif font. Im not planning to get involved in many elections now that I dont have to run for office again. But the French election is very important to the future of France and the values that we care so much about.

As interferences in a foreign election go, this is no alleged Kremlin-directed hacking of the D.N.C. But its still fairly surreala word whose sense depreciates by the dayto see the former President inform the citizens of France that Macron, who faces Marine Le Pen, of the National Front, on Sunday in the elections second and final round, is the best choice to lead their divided nation as the cracks in ours deepen by the day. After Brexit and Trump, the pressure is on France to reject Le Pens nationalist fascism and to uphold liberal values, as Obama says (mistranslated in the video as valeurs libralesfree-market valuesthough in the case of Macron those may apply, too). It cant be easy for a former leader of the free world to implore another country to save it. Obama, of course, keeps his famous cool, but the whole thing seems far too Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi for comfort.

Obama has long enjoyed huge popularity in France, and, as Lauren Collins wrote in her recent Letter from France for the magazine, Macron, as a candidate, has done his best to emulate him circa 2008. Like the first-term senator from Illinois, Macron vaulted to his front-runner status with astonishing speed, skipping the formality of an established political career. He has never held elected office, and last year abandoned Franois Hollandes sputtering Socialist Party, for which he served as the minister of the economy, to build his own technocratic, centrist one, En Marche! (So much for those of us who prayed that the exclamation point might be retired from political service after the failure of Jeb!) Macron, who is thirty-nine, has played up his youth as an asset and has staffed his operation with an army of chipper volunteers, a species not previously thought to be native to France. And, in an election cycle that seemed to beg for some good mudslingingboth Le Pen and Franois Fillon, who ran as the candidate of the center-right Les Rpublicains, are being investigated for corruptionMacron has been conspicuously determined to run a positive campaign. Lespoirhopeis a favorite word. He appeals to peoples hopes, and not their fears, as Obama says in his ad.

Macrons upbeat temperament has lately been tested as he has gone head to head with Le Pen, whom he narrowly bested in the elections first round, on April 23rd. On Wednesday night, the two finalists met in a debate so aggressive and brutal that it seemed positively American. Le Pen, who has harped repeatedly on the four years that Macron worked as an investment banker at Rothschildan anti-Semitic dogwhistle that has been enthusiastically amplified by her supporterssuggested that Macron might be stashing money in an offshore account. (False.) Macron called Le Pen a liar. (True.) She called him the representative of subjugated France; he said that she would mire France in civil war. Viewers were shocked. This is not the sort of thing that usually happens in French elections, which to an American observer are almost unbearably reasonable in their decorum and restraint. Candidates get an equitable amount of airtime, mercifully limited by law; the two-round voting system means that small-party candidates enjoy greater legitimacy and influence, and that those citizens who voted in the first round for a candidate who doesnt make it to the second can still cast their ballot for a finalist, rather than for a protest candidate.

But French voters can still cast a blank ballot or decide not to vote at all, an outcome that Macron has ample reason to fear. Jean-Luc Mlenchon, the far-left candidate in the race, won nearly twenty per cent of the vote in the first round, two points fewer than Le Pen, and though he has said that he will be casting a vote, he has not said whether itwill be for Macron, or blank. (He did say that supporting Le Pen is out of the question.) Le Pen is a racist and a fascist; Mlenchon is not. But both abhor the European Union and the globalist, pro-E.U., pro-business positions of Macron. A poll released earlier this week found that sixty-five per cent of Mlenchons supporters are planning either to cast a blank ballot or to not vote, while a study conducted by Sciences Po found that up to fourteen million peoplea third of the French electoratemay not vote.

The threat of blank ballots is causing bitter rancor in the French Left. My Facebook feed has filled with impassioned posts from French friends who supported Mlenchon in the first round begging their compatriots to go vote. One such friend, Jacky Goldberg, told me that the last two weeks of discord have been exhausting. Were beyond rationality, he wrote me in an e-mail. Im worried that this fracture, symbolized by Mlenchons silence, and by the choice of two-thirds of his supporters to abstain, will bury the Left in the years to comewhatever remains of the Left, that is.

It is hard to imagine any Mlenchon voter being swayed by Obamas video, with its everythings-going-to-be-all-right tone. More persuasive was one recorded by Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece, who also published a thoughtful op-ed in the Guardian to elaborate on his views. Progressives, Varoufakis wrote, see Macron, correctly, as the minister who stripped full-time French workers of hard-won labor rights and who today is the establishments last resort against Le Pen. (As a minister in Hollandes government, Macron championed a disastrously unpopular piece of legislation softening traditional French labor protections.) But, he argues, blocking Le Pen is more than enough reason to vote for him. Varoufakis also notes Macrons opposition to austerity in Greece: Perhaps because Macron did not emerge from the test tube of social-democratic party politics, he was the only minister of the Franco-German axis to risk his own political capital by coming to Greeces aid in 2015. Varoufakis has plenty of disagreements with Macron, but for them to matter, the guy has to first be put in office. Allow me to be unequivocal, he says in his video. Vote for Macron with the same energy and enthusiasm with which were going to oppose him the day after he becomes President of France.

On Friday, Macrons staff announced that his campaign had been the target of amassive and coordinated hackdesigned to sow doubt and misinformation in the racesfinal hours. Even so, he will likely win on Sunday.But doesMacronactually appeal to peoples hopes, not their fears, as Obama says? Running against a hateful, fear-mongering candidate like Le Pen can be just another way of turning fear into a political advantage; any undecided voters who will side with Macron this weekend will do so out of fear of electing Le Pen. And Macron doesnt represent that other great Obama promise of change you can believe in; more like change that you may have to swallow for your own good. Thats a hard message to sell as a candidate, and it wont get any easier for a President of an anxious, split nation. On the eve oftheelection, Macron has replaced Obamas endorsement witha newpinnedTweet, brief and to the point: Votez.

*Editors note: This post has been updated to reflect that Obamas YouTube video no longer appears at the top of Macrons Twitter page.

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Can Obama's Hope Sway the French Election? - The New Yorker

Former President Obama and Bruce Springsteen, campaigning together in Madison, Wisc. in November 2012, a day before the presidential election. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Obama and Bruce Springsteen, campaigning together in Madison, Wisc. in November 2012, a day before the presidential election.

Yesterday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama unveiled ambitious architectural plans for the Obama Presidential Center, a three-building complex slated for completion in 2021, to be located in the Jackson Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.

Along with the presidential library itself, the plans include an auditorium, a restaurant and a public garden, as well spaces for exhibitions, education, meeting rooms, and, according to the Chicago Tribune, "a vibrant park around the center, where children would sled down newly created hills, where people would barbecue and where activity would spill over to nearby stores and restaurants."

But for music and film fans, the most exciting elements of the complex might be a planned recording studio where, as former President Obama said in comments quoted by the New York Times, "I could invite Chance [the Rapper, a Chicago native] or Bruce Springsteen, depending on your tastes, to talk about how you could record music that has social commentary and meaning," and "a studio where I can invite Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg to do workshops on how to make films."

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On Deck For The Obama Presidential Library: A Recording Studio - NPR