When Barack Obama started to yield to the Tea Party, it gave them encouragement to continue pressing for more. “People want their president to be tough and decisive”, says Bob Crawford, the sole guest on this week’s Chicago Newsroom. Despite his misgivings, he still doesn’t see a serious Republican challenger, and thinks Obama will probably be re-elected.

It’s a rare privilege to have a guest of Crawford’s stature on the program, and we have a good time taking a few samples of the hundreds of audio clips in his University of Illinois archive of Mayoral recordings.  Bob reported for nearly thirty years from City Hall, mostly for WBBM Newsradio 780.

How does Bob feel Rahm Emanuel’s doing so far?

“In many ways his job skills might make him more qualified than Rich Daley was, simply because of the way he came to the job.” he said, referring to the fact that, unlike his predecessor, Emanuel didn’t come up in the system, and owes no allegiance to “pay to play”.

Crawford says there’s just no way Emanuel can balance the budget without layoffs, and some of those layoffs will have to be union people. And there will probably have to be an end to the “prevailing wage” policy that pays union members at the same rate as higher-paid seasonal workers in the private sector.

It’s Bob Crawford Unplugged on this week’s Chicago Newsroom.