(Please, will some East Coast rapper start a feud by rhyming that “cognac” with “syrup of ipecac“?) Fat chance, given that Obama would surely choose a hip-hop star from his adopted home turf, Chicago, over one from California. And, in fact, back in 2006 Obama met privately with the Cook County-raised rapper Ludacris, which seems to have worked wonders. In Ludacris’s controversial recent song “Politics (Obama Is Here),” he actually dares to criticize Jesse Jackson: “Now Jesse talkin’ slick and apologizin’ for what? / If you said it then you meant it.” If that doesn’t add to the rapper’s street cred, I don’t know what will.