Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President.

President Barack Obama comes to Chicago today.

Welcome to Bizarro World, Mr. President.

His stop was originally planned as part of a three-day post State of the Union tour to speak about the economy. The national scandal that the level of violence in his hometown has become has changed those plans somewhat.

He will speak at Hyde Park Academy High School at 6220 S. Stony Island around 1PM this afternoon.

Is Obama concerned that his hometown of Chicago and his home state of Illinois have become Bizarro World?

There are many issues, including the causes of Chicago’s violence, that the Democratic Party President should address with his Democratic Party buddies while he is here.

He might want to pull his former Chief of Staff and now Mayor Rahm Emanuel aside and ask him to explain the planned closing of schools, especially schools on the west and south side of the city since closings are contributing to the epidemic of murderous violence.

That would also require some self-reflection on the President’s own role and the role of his Department of Education in those school closing decisions.

He might also interrogate his former aide and now the city’s chief executive about the provocative relationship towards the teachers union since the Mayor took office. Those provocations have not ceased since the strike earlier this year.

In fact, I have heard that Rahm is already meddling in internal union affairs, offering up financial backing in hopes of finding a candidate to run against Karen Lewis and the progressive CORE slate that now heads the CTU.

This should be troubling to the President, as Lewis and the CTU have become a hero and a model to many in the Democratic Party’s base and to union members and activists all across the country.

In the Bizarro World of Chicago and  Illinois, Lewis is no hero to some Democratic Party leaders here.

On Tuesday night in the President’s State of the Union message, he said,

We can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful. We won’t grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity.

Tell that to your Democratic Party State Chairman, Mr. President.

As Speaker of the Illinois House he is leading the charge to destroy public employee pensions. He along with the Democratic Governor Quinn and Senate President Cullerton are doing exactly what Obama warned Congress not to do: Asking seniors to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction, asking nothing from the wealthiest and most powerful in this state.

But Illinois is Bizarro World where Democrats often seem more like Republicans, especially when it comes to cutting social programs, ignoring the needs of thousands of retired school teachers and other public employees, while leaving alone a tax policy that favors the rich.

Welcome to Chicago, Mr. President. You should have a busy day.