Report: Chicago binds Obama's inner circle

CHICAGO, July 14 (UPI) -- Likely Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's inner group of friends and advisers have strong Chicago ties, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The newspaper said Sen. Obama, D-Ill., mainly surrounds himself with a trusted circle of colleagues and personal friends he met and cultivated while living in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood, near the University of Chicago. Those include parking lot magnate Michael Nesbitt and Chicago businesswoman Valerie Jarrett, the Post said, who were friends before he become a U.S. senator.

In Obama's inner circle, "there are a lot of people with shared values," Nesbitt, whose family vacationed with the Obamas over Easter and whose daughters spend most Saturdays together, told the Post.

Jarrett's role in the campaign seems to be that of a liaison between Obama's private and campaign lives and she frequently is the bringer of news and opinions others think he may not want to hear, the Post said. She also will quietly try to heal internal squabbles within the Obama camp, the article said.

"(Obama is) going to gravitate toward people like him," Jarrett told the Post. "He's going to look for people with similar temperaments."