This week's guest has been behind the scenes in Chicago politics for years, but just out of the frame. He’s crossed paths with Rod Blagojevich and Jesse Jackson Jr., worked on the Clinton/Gore campaign in the same political organization as a young Don Harmon and Phil Rock. But for the bulk of his career, he’s worked for the Obamas, starting as a paralegal to Michelle Robinson at the law firm of Sidley Austin - not long before she and a hotshot Harvard grad named Barack Obama got married. About 20 years after first meeting the Obamas, Michael Strautmanis is now very much in the frame as executive vice president of civic engagement at the Obama Foundation. He discusses not only the progress on the Obama Presidential Center’s construction in Jackson Park and the foundation’s fundraising efforts, but also concerns around housing affordability nearby, what it’s like as a guy who grew up mostly on the North Side to be handling a project with a big South Side impact, and how the foundation might play a role in addressing gun violence. Strautmanis also talks about what it takes to be a good “fixer” – a political problem solver – and the biggest political mess he ever had to clean up. Remember that beer summit back in 2009?