CHICAGO – Barack Obama’s election as president, a yet-to-be built skyscraper and a Batman movie.

GQ magazine says those are among the reasons it picked Chicago as its “City of the Year” for 2008.

GQ editor Sara Goldstein says Chicagoan Obama’s election is the most obvious reason.

But the magazine points to other Chicagoans it says have changed the way the country does politics. That includes Mayor Richard Daley and the president-to-be’s chief strategist, David Axelrod.

GQ also cites Chicago’s role as the backdrop in the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”

It calls the proposed 2,000-foot Chicago Spire the next “American landmark” even though construction’s stopped amid the economy downturn. If completed, it’d be North America’s tallest building.