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Friday, February 22, 2008
Obama, Is More Than A Lucky Barackstar, He's Truly Blessed.
In 2004 Senate race, Obama went from underdog to front-runner
Senate race in Illinois exploded much as his current campaign has
10:26 PM CST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
rbush@dallasnews.com
Barack Obama spent his last days as an anonymous man driving around Illinois courting voters.
It was early 2004, and through the South Side of Chicago and towns like Springfield and Peoria, he saw nothing like the crowds that now greet him wherever he goes, including Reunion Arena on Wednesday.
Though he could not have known it then, Mr. Obama was embarking on one of the most astounding ascents in American politics.
Today, he is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then, he was just another long-shot candidate for the Senate in a year that was shaping up nicely for Illinois Democrats.
But to survive the primary, he would have to beat the son of an entrenched political dynasty and a millionaire businessman. His chances against the Chicago political machine and a stocked war chest looked bleak.
David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter who covered the race and went on to write about it in Obama: From Promise to Power, recalled Mr. Obama's early struggles to get people to hear him.
"There were times where he would give speeches, and people wouldn't be listening. And it bothered him when he wouldn't get a reaction," Mr. Mendell said.
But suddenly, everything changed.
First, Mr. Obama's chief Democratic rival folded amid a personal scandal. A few months later, his Republican opponent would implode the same way.
Mr. Obama was headed in the other direction, and after his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he was transformed overnight from a promising new face in his party to an American political force.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., recalled how powerful the change was.
"I remember going to Freeport, Ill., a Republican stronghold in our state, and we were supposed to speak at a community building. There was an overflow crowd, and the police showed up. I thought, 'I have never seen anything like this in my life in Illinois politics.' It never stopped from then to today," he said.
On that trip around the state, Mr. Obama tried to answer every question in the crowd, to hang around until every supporter had had a chance to shake his hand.
But it became impossible. The crowds grew alongside his celebrity. By the time he got to Washington, he was as recognizable as anybody in politics.
On his first day in the capital as a senator, he fielded dozens of questions about whether he planned to run for president.
At his first news conference, a reporter asked him to describe his place in history.
Mr. Obama tried to take it in stride, telling reporters that he didn't want to play savior to his party, that he just wanted to focus on being a good senator.
At some point that changed. At Reunion Arena, Mr. Obama called out to the crowd that his candidacy came "at a defining moment in our history," that he is "confident in my ability to lead this nation."
Senate race in Illinois exploded much as his current campaign has
10:26 PM CST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
rbush@dallasnews.com
Barack Obama spent his last days as an anonymous man driving around Illinois courting voters.
It was early 2004, and through the South Side of Chicago and towns like Springfield and Peoria, he saw nothing like the crowds that now greet him wherever he goes, including Reunion Arena on Wednesday.
Though he could not have known it then, Mr. Obama was embarking on one of the most astounding ascents in American politics.
Today, he is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Then, he was just another long-shot candidate for the Senate in a year that was shaping up nicely for Illinois Democrats.
But to survive the primary, he would have to beat the son of an entrenched political dynasty and a millionaire businessman. His chances against the Chicago political machine and a stocked war chest looked bleak.
David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter who covered the race and went on to write about it in Obama: From Promise to Power, recalled Mr. Obama's early struggles to get people to hear him.
"There were times where he would give speeches, and people wouldn't be listening. And it bothered him when he wouldn't get a reaction," Mr. Mendell said.
But suddenly, everything changed.
First, Mr. Obama's chief Democratic rival folded amid a personal scandal. A few months later, his Republican opponent would implode the same way.
Mr. Obama was headed in the other direction, and after his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he was transformed overnight from a promising new face in his party to an American political force.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., recalled how powerful the change was.
"I remember going to Freeport, Ill., a Republican stronghold in our state, and we were supposed to speak at a community building. There was an overflow crowd, and the police showed up. I thought, 'I have never seen anything like this in my life in Illinois politics.' It never stopped from then to today," he said.
On that trip around the state, Mr. Obama tried to answer every question in the crowd, to hang around until every supporter had had a chance to shake his hand.
But it became impossible. The crowds grew alongside his celebrity. By the time he got to Washington, he was as recognizable as anybody in politics.
On his first day in the capital as a senator, he fielded dozens of questions about whether he planned to run for president.
At his first news conference, a reporter asked him to describe his place in history.
Mr. Obama tried to take it in stride, telling reporters that he didn't want to play savior to his party, that he just wanted to focus on being a good senator.
At some point that changed. At Reunion Arena, Mr. Obama called out to the crowd that his candidacy came "at a defining moment in our history," that he is "confident in my ability to lead this nation."
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