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| Home Front: Politix |
| How Obama's Stars Aligned |
| 2007-08-12 |
| I posted about 15% of the article. Much more at link In the summer of 2002, a little-known Illinois state legislator named Barack Obama thought he saw the political opening he'd been looking for. It was a long shot, a flier -- a race for the U.S. Senate against a sitting Republican. Obama believed he could beat the incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald. The immediate and, in some ways, harder challenge would be getting the Democratic nomination. Obama was about to turn 41. An attorney and law lecturer at the University of Chicago, he had been elected to the state Senate in 1996, but had been chafing for some time at the limitations of legislating in Springfield. In 2000, he'd overreached by challenging former Black Panther Bobby Rush for the seat Rush held in the U.S. House of Representatives. It had been a disastrous bid, but understandable given that in Illinois, as around the country, paths to higher office for black politicians are few. Spinmeter twitches. But this new opportunity looked, to him, feasible. In 1992, another Chicago politician, Carol Moseley Braun, had demonstrated that it was possible for an African American to win a statewide U.S. Senate primary, as long as there were at least two white Democrats to split the white vote. And several were already lining up to take on Fitzgerald. It's alweays about race, isn't it. So how did Obama win so much of the white vote, I wounder? There was just one problem, and it was a big one: Moseley Braun was talking about running herself. Only the second African American U.S. senator since Reconstruction, she had lost to Fitzgerald in 1998, in part as a result of allegations, never proved, that she had misused campaign funds. After the loss, she had been appointed U.S. ambassador to New Zealand. But now she was back in Hyde Park, the neighborhood that surrounds the University of Chicago, where Obama also lived. If she did run, there would be two credible black Democrats in the primary -- one far better known than the other. "Our bases overlapped so much -- not just that she was African American, but that she came out of the progressive wing of the party . . . and our donor bases would have been fairly similar," says Obama, who also needed support from liberal whites. "So it would have been difficult, I think, to mobilize the entire coalition that was required for me to run." During the second half of 2002, Obama quietly hired staffers, putting a team together and planning his campaign. But he couldn't announce until Moseley Braun made up her mind. Lobbying her seemed likely to backfire. "She's a very independent person," says Obama's campaign manager at the time, Dan Shomon, and "the view was to let her decide on her own." And then, just after the new year, news reached them that Moseley Braun had made her decision. She was running. For president of the United States. Just like Obama, except she served an entire term, first. And with that, the first cherry had clicked into place: one in an extraordinary series that would hit -- bing bing bing bing -- in the jackpot that for the past five years has characterized Barack Obama's career. If Moseley Braun had run for her old seat, Obama would not be where he is now: sitting on an upholstered couch in a busy office in the Hart Senate Office Building, the only African American member of the U.S. Senate and a leading contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Legs crossed, suit jacket off, Obama readily acknowledges Moseley Braun's decision "was another example of the stars aligning" to land him in what seemed, not so long ago, a laughably improbable spot. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #8 Trailing Daughter 2020! |
| Posted by: BA 2007-08-12 22:10 |
| #7 And here I always thought you had to be born American to be president. It's my understanding that one must have one American parent and be born on American territory to qualify to become president of the United States. Hence, if Barack Obama was born at an American embassy or on a U.S. Armed Forces base anywhere in the world, that would count, as it would if his mother had returned to the U.S. to give birth. On the other hand, I've also been told that simply being born to American citizenship as the natural offspring of at least one American parent suffices. Given that trailing daughter is determinedly anti-political (except for thinking the Democratic Party is for unintelligent reationaries, and that whatever else Senator Clinton must not become president), I haven't worried much about the consequences of giving birth to her in a German hospital. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-08-12 22:01 |
| #6 "Except she served an entire term, first" > that pesky 2008-2020 anti-USA OWG-SWO/CWO Omni-Govtist DemoLeft agenda again. *FREEREPUBLIC Netter > COMUNIST PARTY USA Elex Flyer + US Manifesto > 2008 and beyond is likely the best oportune time for the COMMUNIST PARTY USA, etal and aligned Orgs to achieve de facto political power in the USA. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-08-12 19:21 |
| #5 I understand she was not the brightest bulb in the socket, shall we say, yet she was elected to represent the great state of Illinois - by Democrats! Or was she appointed? I've slept since then... |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-08-12 16:24 |
| #4 Moseley Braun was dating a dude with serious financial ties to Nigeria's then dictator. She couldn't have been elected dog-catcher, even though her intellectual abilities merited that position and no higher... |
| Posted by: borgboy2001 2007-08-12 16:13 |
| #3 the only African American member of the U.S. Senate And here I always thought you had to be born American to be president. Ya learn something new every day... |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2007-08-12 12:26 |
| #2 Moseley Braun could have never won a senate seat in Illinois again. I call bs! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-08-12 10:57 |
| #1 Moseley Braun's decision "was another example of the |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-08-12 09:32 |