More than two years after Obama took office vowing to banish “special interests” from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events, an investigation by iWatch News has found.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56993.html
Comment: Though transparency turned out to be one of his many broken promises, it should be transparent to just about everyone what Obama is really all about. It is not hope and change, it is just the same old dirty and cronyistic Chicago style politics.
A lot longer than decades - though Obama seems to have elevated cronyism, broken promises and lies to a higher level in recent times.
Historically, Ulysses S. Grant comes to mind. Contrary to what some might think, I was not actually around to see that personally.