CHICAGO — Barack Obama's journey from community organizer to lawmaker to president was also a journey through several different Chicagos, from the city's isolated and neglected Far South Side to its elite centers of political and social power.

So it's perhaps no surprise that the contest to host his presidential library has set off some classic Chicago infighting between activists in depressed neighborhoods and wealthy universities.

The library is "such a prize that nobody is going to yield power to anybody else," veteran Chicago political analyst Don Rose said.

The squabble also puts Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, in the difficult position of trying to present a single, unified bid, lest the feuding weaken the city's odds against rival campaigns to put the library in New York or Hawaii....