Michael Nutter

PHILADELPHIA -- Mayor Michael Nutter played to the crowd here during his opening remarks of this weekend's National Governors Association meeting Friday night.

At one point, Gov. Ed Rendell whispered in his ear to mention something about the famous, but unusual brightly-uniformed Mummers.

Here is a video of Nutter's remarks:

After working the crowd during the National Governors Association annual meeting, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter told PolitickerPa.com said he was ready to campaign hard for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

"We've had some contact with the campaign," he said. "I will do anything, go anywhere, do whatever I can, expend all possible energy. They just need to tell me the time and place."

Nutter campaigned hard for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary during the spring, but said he would campaign for Obama when the primary season ended.

More coverage of the centennial National Governors Association coming soon.

For almost two years, Gov. Ed Rendell has worked against staunch neighborhood resistance to proposed casinos in Philadelphia. Even as some residents who once revered him as the city's mayor grew to loath him for his acceptance of the slot parlors planned for the Delaware River waterfront, Rendell has always sided with the casino developers.

When neighborhood activists continued to push the casinos to consider other sites further from residential areas, Rendell wrote to one that "the issue of re-siting is over." When City Council continued to cause delays, he sharply criticized local lawmakers as having "no guts."

But now that some of his staunchest Harrisburg allies from Philadelphia are lining up against him, Rendell appears to be bending, if not breaking, on the casino issue. On Friday, the man who championed casinos in Pennsylvania said "the political landscape has changed" and that he would meet with the casino developers to discuss moving the projects elsewhere.

Still, even as he signaled his first significant shift on casinos after long lauding their potential for proving tax relief, Rendell, a Democrat, sounded a note of caution.

"I'll meet and make a good-faith effort to explore the potential benefits of re-siting," he said, "but nobody should get too excited. The only way these casinos can be legally re-sited is if the casinos voluntarily agree."

When Ed Rendell took over as Mayor of Philadelphia he took on the unions during contract negotiations and won.  When John Street took over he tried to take on the unions and quickly backed down.  Now it is Michael Nutter’s turn.  Nutter said in his state of the city address he has set aside $400 million to take care of the contracts, but will that be enough?

More PolitickerPA.com coverage: John Street's vanishing legacy

More PolitickerPA.com coverage: John Street's vanishing legacy

The Inquirer today asks a question that has been on the mind of many political watchers: What on earth is happening to former Philadelphia Mayor John Street's legacy?

Street left office in January after a second term that saw his popularity dip drastically as the city's murder rate climbed and he was assailed for spending a morning waiting in line to buy an iPhone. His successor, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, won office in large part by campaigning as the anti-Street.

Nutter and Street have always been political foes, and many say their dislike of one another extends outside politics and into the personal. But when Street left City Hall to make room for Nutter, he probably didn't expect that so much of his time in office would be deconstructed so fast.

TJ Rooney and the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania was solidly behind Hillary Clinton and delivered for her in the primary. When Barack Obama won this week the Party was quick to get behind Obama which makes them a winner this week.  Find out who else made the Winners and Losers list for June 6, 2008.

PHILADELPHIA-After stumping hard for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) before Pennsylvania's April primary contest, Mayor Michael Nutter said today that he was ready to campaign for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

"I'm a Democrat, I'm supporting the Democratic nominee," Nutter told reporters this afternoon at City Hall.

"I'm going to do everything I can to help," he added.

He opted not to jump into the debate over whether Obama choose Clinton as his running mate, calling it "a very personal decision." He said Obama should be allowed to make the decision with "fill freedom and flexibility, without a lot of pressure."

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said yesterday that he would aim to meet personally with all 253 state lawmakers in Harrisburg, with an eye toward advancing Philadelphia policy priorities in the Capitol, The Inquirer reports.

Political observers don't doubt that his goals are policy-based, but with the mayor already increasingly popular outside Philadelphia, it's easy to think the meetings could only help Nutter achieve whatever his future political ambitions may be.

"Obviously if he has some statewide ambitions, getting around and meeting with lawmakers is a good way to start," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster and political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.