Barack Obama on Principles & Values Democratic Jr Senator (IL)

Sub-sections under Principles & Values:
• Campaign Themes
• Past Campaigns
• Personal History
• Racism & Race
• Religion
• Voting Record
• Other issues under Principles & Values

GovWatch: Wears flag pin to deflect anti-patriotism critics

Anybody notice how the American flag pin has become an almost permanent part of Barack Obama's wardrobe these days? A few months ago, Obama rarely, if ever, wore the flag pin. Then he started wearing a pin occasionally, claiming it's a matter of personal whim and his choice of outfits. Nowadays, you rarely see Obama without a pin in his lapel. By contrast, John McCain rarely wears a flag pin.

Obama is unconvincing when he claims that his decision on whether or not to wear the flag in his lapel comes down to the suit he is wearing on any particular day. Political campaigns spend untold hours obsessing over such image questions. A more plausible explanation for his embrace of the flag pin is that he wants to defuse the patriotism debate.

I revere the American flag; I don't refuse to wear flag pins

A: I revere the American flag, and I would not be running for president if I did not revere this country. There's no other country in which my story is even possible; somebody who was born to a teenage mom, raised by a single mother and grandparents from small towns in Kansas; who was able to get an education and rise to the point where I can run for the highest office in the land. I could not help but love this country for all that it's given me. I did wear a flag pin yesertday when a veteran handed it to me, on behalf of disabled veterans. I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and distracts us from figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we make our economy better for the American people.

FactCheck: Yes, refused to wear a flag pin, last year

Actually, in Oct. 2007, he said, "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm gonna try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." In another interview, Obama said, "The truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security."

Conservative critics have attacked Obama repeatedly for these remarks and his lack of a flag pin. Recently, Obama accepted a lapel pin given to him a disabled Vietnam veteran. "It means a lot coming from you," Obama said.

Actions can be seen in 20 years of my public service

Suggesting that I plagiarized Deval Patrick is silly

A: It's not a lot of speeches. There are two lines in speeches that I've been giving over the last couple of weeks. I've been campaigning now for the last 2 years. Patrick is a national co-chairman of my campaign, and suggested an argument that I share, that words are important. Words matter. The implication that they don't I think diminishes how important it is to speak to the American people directly about making America as good as its promise. Barbara Jordan understood this as well as anybody. That I had plagiarized from somebody who was one of my national co-chairs who gave me the line and suggested that I use it is silly, and this is where we start getting into silly season, in politics, and people start getting discouraged about it. What we shouldn't be spending time doing is tearing each other down. We should be spending time lifting the country up.

Wouldn't be running if I didn't think I was prepared

Don't seat MI & FL delegates; they're based on non-campaign

A: Well, here's what I think is important. We've got to make sure that whoever wins the most votes, the most states, the most delegates, that they are the nominee [and not] somehow overturned by party insiders.

Q: What do you think should happen, then, to the delegates in Michigan and Florida? Shouldn't their votes be counted?

A: You know, all we've done in this process is to just follow the rules as they've been laid out. We abided by the rules that had been set up by the DNC, so we didn't campaign there.

Q: Is Sen. Clinton trying to change the rules in the middle of the game?

A: It certainly wouldn't be fair to allocate delegates based on a non-campaign. We did not campaign in those states. So there may be ways that we can manage this--having a caucus for example

FactCheck: Ranked most liberal in Senate, based on 99 votes

Obama's answer could mislead voters. Although we agree that rankings and labels sometimes don't have much substance behind them, Obama cited just one of 99 Senate votes selected by National Journal's reporters and editors for the study. The nonpartisan public policy magazine's analysis was done according to a rigorous process the publication has been using since 1981. Most of the votes chosen had to do with the minimum wage, renewable energy, health insurance for children, immigration, embryonic stem cell research, and other issues on which it's not too surprising to see a divide between liberals and conservatives. Clinton ranked 16th most liberal in the Senate

The Clinton years were undeniably better than the Bush years

A: There's no doubt that there were good things that happened during those eight years of the Clinton administration. That's undeniable. Particularly, when looked through the lens of the last eight years with Bush, they look even better. So I don't want to diminish some of the accomplishments that occurred during those eight years.

Turn the page on the failed politics & policies of the past

FactCheck: Obama praised GOP for having ideas, not GOP ideas

Clinton is referring to what Obama told the editorial board of the Reno Gazette-Journal on Jan. 14: "The Republican approach has played itself out. I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom. Now, it's all tax cuts."

There's a difference between praising someone for having ideas and praising the idea itself. Obama is doing the former--and just as clearly not doing the latter. He says the GOP approach has "played itself out," for example.

Objected to Republican ideas; did not compliment them

OBAMA I did not compliment Republican ideas. That is not true. What I said was is that Reagan was a transformative political figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to. While I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, Clinton was a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart. What I said had nothing to do with their policies.

Made the right decisions that were not politically popular

Clinton earned a great relationship with African-Americans

Campaigning on change from the bottom up that King stood for

A: I don't think Dr. King would endorse any of us. What he would call upon the American people to do is to hold us accountable, and this goes to the core differences in this campaign Change does not happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up. Dr. King understood that. It was those women who were willing to walk instead of ride the bus, union workers who are willing to take on violence and intimidation to get the right to organize. It was women who decided, "I'm as smart as my husband. I'd better get the right to vote." arguing, mobilizing, agitating, and ultimately forcing elected officials to be accountable, that's the key. That has been a hallmark of my career, transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved. That's how we're going to bring about change. That's why I want to be president of the US, to respect the power of the American people to bring about change.

Ran for Congress in 2000 & lost

As a US senator, he supported tort reform, voted against filibustering the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, and backed the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorizatio Act. He favors capital punishment (though only in cases of "heinous" crime). He calls himself a strong supporter of reproductive rights, but in the Illinois legislature he voted present instead of yea on a number of bills concerning parental notification and late-term abortion.

On the stump now, he shies away from "social issues" unless he is speaking to a crowd that expects him to comment.

Gave away all Rezko "boneheaded" donations to charity

Obama has given all the Rezko money currently in his larder to charity, and he has called the land deal [he made with Rezko for Obama's personal home] "boneheaded," putting it down to anxieties about purchasing a first home (though his family had previously lived in a Hyde Park condo). No one has alleged that Obama did anything illegal, but his slip-sliding response to questions about Rezko suggests that, should he succeed, he will not drive every pig from the trough.

2 years older than JFK when JFK ran for president

Obama does give a youthful impression. Every time Obama advances a conciliatory idea it conspires with his juvenile appearance, and his deliberative streak can seem like indecisiveness.

On "inexperience": he wrote policy books that media ignores

The idea of Obama as inexperienced was not merely unproven but the opposite of truth. Since the details of Obama's life have already been extensively covered in his own books, journalists have little new to do except trying to find holes in Obama's story.

As Obama noted, "I've written two very detailed books that give people a pretty good window into my heart and soul. I've given policy speeches on just about every important issue." It was the media that didn't want to talk about policies, not Obama. Yet in the media spotlight, the horse race always prevails over policy debates.

Don't know if life beyond earth; focus on life here on earth

Registered 150,000 young Chicago area black voters in 1992

Obama has already brought in a new generation of voters. He led a movement in Chicago in 1992 that registered 150,000 new voters--mostly African Americans--and helped Carol Moseley Braun narrowly win an election to become the first black woman elected to the Senate. Obama's appeal to voters disenchanted with conventional politics could bring many new voters into the political process.

Criticizes voter cynicism from decades of disappointment

According to Obama, "With such cynicism, government doesn't become a force of good, a means of giving people the opportunity to lead better lives; it just becomes an obstacle for people to get rid of. Too often, this cynicism makes us afraid to say what we believe."

Voted with Democratic Party 96.0% of 251 votes.

The Plan: Raise Obama's profile, including African adventure

Since Obama's election to the US Senate, Kenyans had adopted him as one of their own, and his rapid ascent to political power in the US had made him a living folk hero in the East African nation, especially among his father's native tribe, the Luo. A beer named for Obama had gone on the Kenyan market (Senator Beer); a school in rural Kenya was named in his honor; and a play based on his Dreams Memoir had been staged at the Kenyan National Theater.

Assigned RFK's Senate desk; invokes RFK regularly

It is JFK's younger brother who was a witty, eloquent, dashing, and politically progressive, 40-something freshman junior senator from a large northern industrial state when he ran for president in 1968, to whom Barack is most frequently compared. Bobby Kennedy, who sat at the same desk Obama was assigned when he first sat in the Senate chamber and who was sworn in on January 4, 1965, 40 years to the day before his political descendant, launched his quest as the electorate was despairing under the rising death count of a badly conceived and ill-defined, no-end-in-sight war.

When Obama invokes Kennedy, he sounds as if he could be reading a passage from his own book. "In a nation torn by war and divided against itself, he was able to look us in the eye and tell us that no matter... how persistent the poverty or the racism, no matter how far adrift America strayed, hope would come again."

Hopefund PAC donated $500K to Democratic Senate candidates

Candidates
• Daniel Akaka (HI)
• Jeff Bingaman (NM)
• Sherrod Brown (OH)
• Robert Byrd (WV)
• Maria Cantwell (WA)
• Thomas Carper (DE)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY)
• Kent Conrad (ND)
• Dianne Feinstein (CA)
• Edward Kennedy (MA)
• Amy Klobuchar (MN)
• Herb Kohl (WI)
• Ned Lamont (CT)
• Claire McCaskill (MO)
• Ben Nelson (NE)
• Bill Nelson (FL)
• Debbie Stabenow (MI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

Convention speech understood country yearns for unity

Pro: He was inspiring.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America--there is the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America: there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who oppose the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes.

Post-1960s politics more about moral attitude than issues

Americans dislike partisanship--not solution like Dems think

I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. For it is the predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face. It is what keeps us locked in "either/or" thinking: the notion that we can only have big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate 46 million uninsured or embrace "socialized medicine."

It is such partisanship that have turned Americans off. What is needed is a broad majority who are re-engaged and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interest of others.

Enlist the American people in the process of self-government

Unflinching progressive but ok to downstate conservatives

Be strong or be clever and make peace

Guilt is a luxury that not everyone can afford

Go beyond the divisions so that the government can work

Life experiences taught me how to bring people together

A: What I look at is the trajectory of my life because I was raised by a single mom. My father left when I was two, and I was raised by my mother and my grandparents. There were rocky periods during my youth, when I made mistakes & was off course. And what was most important, in my life, was learning to take responsibility for not only my own actions but how I can bring people together to actually have a impact on the world. Working as a community organizer with ordinary people, bringing them together and organizing them to provide jobs and health care, economic security to people who didn't have it, then working as a civil rights attorney to fight for those who were being discriminated against on the job. It's the reason that I have the capacity to bring people together, and why I am determined to make sure that the American people get a government that is worthy of their decency and their generosity.

People understand we must bring the country together

I have shown the right judgment to lead

Labels like "most liberal" prevent problem-solving

A: Well, an example of why I was rated the most liberal was because I wanted an impartial office of public integrity. Now, I didn't know that it was a Democratic issue. I thought that was a good government issue that a lot of Republicans would like to see. So that's the problem with some of these ratings--how they score things. It uses categories that I think don't make sense to a lot of Americans.

Q: Are you proud of that designation? To be known as the most liberal voting senator?

A: I don't think you heard what I just said, which is that the designations don't make sense. This is what I would call old politics. This is the stuff we're trying to get rid of. Because the problem is, when we start breaking down into conservative & liberal, [that creates nothing but partisanship]. Those old categories don't work, and they're preventing us from solving them problems.

Overcome politics of demonizing opponents

I believe a new kind of politics is possible, and I believe it is necessary. Because the American people can't afford another four years without health care, decent wages, or an end to this war.

Imagine if next year, the entire nation had a president they could believe in. A president who rallied all Americans around a common purpose. That's the kind of President we need in this country. And that's the kind of President I will be.

Focus on Iraq, revising presidential power, and healthcare

If you join me I promise you we can change America

Resounds with American theme of overcoming burden of history

Cultivates comparison to Jack Kennedy

Campaigns assiduously in black churches

Viral video "I Got a Crush on Obama" by Obama Girl

Community politics: merges Alinsky & political activism

Obama's vision of leadership is a merger between political activism and the community organizing. One might call it "community politics." Community politics differs from community service, in which the more privileged members of society volunteer to help the poorer. As noble as that may be, it doesn't create the kind of political empowerment sought by Obama. Instead, community politics aims to transform politics using the techniques of community organizing. Obama's community organizing approach is to communicate with voters, listen to their suggestions, and convince them to buy in to a set of proposals.

Apply lessons from both Goldwater and McGovern

Conservatives and liberals have learned different lessons from losing. In 1964, when Barry Goldwater was trounced by Johnson, it actually launched today's conservative movement that culminated in the election of Reagan In 1972, when McGovern was trounced by Nixon, the progressive movement was dead. Democrats always avoided a progressive agenda. After the miserable failures of Gore and Kerry, progressives have argued that Democrats need to follow the conservative approach post-Goldwater and win by standing for something. Obama is trying to bridge these two approaches, to have integrity and progressive values, while simultaneously presenting a more centrist face that appeals across political boundaries.

Invites supporters to join him on "This Improbable Quest"

Obama's campaign is improbable, but not because he is black and so little known nationally It seems improbable because it defies the political establishment. Obama is a candidate who urges bipartisanship, who calls for ethics reform and changes in the campaign finance systems, and who speaks in grand terms about transforming American politics.

Obama's biggest flaw may be that he's not audacious enough, that he holds his tongue to spare feelings. Obama thinks we need to restore faith in government and hope in the better nature of our fellow citizens. But sometimes he seems unwilling to trust the people enough to tell them what he really thinks. Or perhaps he just doesn't trust the media to let him engage in honesty without destroying his campaign. Instead, Obama's first instinct too often is to compromise to reach common ground.

Resolve "most electable" vs."most progressive" by being both

For a long time, progressive have been forced in the Democratic primary to choose between pragmatism and idealism, between delectability and values. In 2004, many Democrats made the unfortunate choic of John Kerry over Howard Dean precisely because they though Dean couldn't be elected. Obama offers an easy resolution to this program, by being both the most electable and the most progressive candidate among the leaders in the Democratic Party.

Turn the page: invite GOP & independents to join in agenda

A: What I'm talking about is ending the divisive politics that we have in this country. I think it is important for us as Democrats to be clear about what we stand for. But I think we also have to invite Republicans and independents to join us in a progressive agenda for universal health care, to make sure that they are included in conversations about improving our education system and properly funding our public schools. I think turning the page means that we've got to get over the special interest-driven politics that we've become accustomed to. And most importantly it's important for us to make sure that we're telling the truth to the American people about the choices we face.

Seen as both critical outsider and establishment insider

Movements to draft him to run for the presidency in 2008 would take hold on the Internet Not since the days of Jack & Bobby Kennedy had a politician captured so quickly the imagination of such a broad array of Americans. And even the Kennedy comparison would not characterize Obama's fame properly. Not since Ronald Reagan had a politician bee so adept at sharing his own unwavering optimism with a disheartened electorate. Using the broad power of the modern media as his launching pad, Obama would plot a course that catapulted him from little-known state lawmaker to best-selling author to US Senator to national celebrity. A mixture of idealistic and pragmatist, Obama would move almost overnight from a critic of the established political system inside the Beltway to a player within that system. He would represent both outsider and insider.

People have an urgent desire for change in Washington

A: As I travel around the country, people have an urgent desire for change in Washington. We are not going to fix anything unless we change how business is done in Washington. Part of that is bringing people together. But part of it is also overcoming special interests & lobbyists who are writing legislation that's critical to the American people. And one of the things I bring is a perspective that says: Washington has to change.

A "hopemonger", having seen the power of hope

When I got to the Illinois State Senate, people said it was too hard to take on the issue of money in politics, our state had too long a history, too many entrenched interests. But I knew then that we had the people of Illinois on our side. I even found a few folks on the other side of the aisle who were willing to listen. And we passed the first major ethics reform legislation in 25 years.

I know that change is possible. I know where hope leads us. The only reason I'm standing here before you is because of hope. I know what's possible in America. When I talk about hope, it isn't just the rhetoric of a campaign; it's been the cause of my life, a cause I will work for and fight for every single day as your president.

Washington can change if we say: Yes we can

When they say that we can't finally buy the radios [first responders] need to talk to one another in case of an emergency, we say, Yes we can.

When they say that we can't bring [our troops] home from Iraq so they can do the job they love back home, we say, Yes we can.

Replace partisan bickering with politics of hope

On cover of Time magazine, about his book & presidency

The 45-year-old has done nothing to squelch the growing frenzy. Obama no longer denies interest in joining the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Obama indicated that he will weigh the outcome of the Nov. 7 US congressional elections. A Democratic takeover of both the House & Senate would increase the likelihood of Obama vying with Hillary Clinton for the party's 2008 nomination. "When the election is over and my book tour is done, I will think about how I can be most useful to the country and how I can reconcile that with being a good dad and a good husband," Obama told Time.

Portrayed as a multiplier instead of a divider

This neologism was coined by Robert McElvaine of the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: "What America needs is a leader who practices the politics of multiplication rather than division. The person who has the greatest potential to be the Multiplier has just returned from a successful visit to Africa and will be speaking Sunday in Iowa: Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois."

Pro: America wants a president who will bring us together. The current partisan atmosphere is tiresome. McElvaine is right, we need a unifier.

Con: America voted for President who divided us. In 2004, the majority of us voted for arguably the most divisive president in history.

Pro: A multiplier is electable.

Con: An African-American Multiplier is not electable. McElvaine concedes that a significant fraction of the American electorate would vote against any black candidate.

Progressives should recognize common morality with religion

I am not suggesting that every progressive suddenly latch on to religious terminology. I am suggesting that perhaps if we progressives shed some of our own biases, we might recognize the values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal.

"Audacity of Hope" to change politics to reflect common good

I told them that government couldn't solve all their problems. But with a slight change in priorities we could make sure every child had a decent shot at life and meet the challenges we faced as a nation.

This book grows directly out of those conversations on the campaign trail. The ideals at the core of the American experience, and the values that bind us together despite our differences, remain alive in the hearts and minds of most Americans. The topic of this book is how we might begin the process of changing our politics and our civic life. I don't know exactly how to do it. But I offer personal reflections on those values and ideals that have led me to public life, and myown best assessment of the ways we can ground our politics in the notion of a common good.

Seek common ground, not a moral crusade

Offer real hope-not blind optimism-to the American people

I'm living my parents' dreams and the American dream

Greatness based on Declaration of Independence, not military

We are one people all defending the United States of America

Want common-sense solutions, not liberal-conservative labels

State Senate opponents disqualified on technicality

Palmer lost the congressional primary contest in Nov. 2005 to Jesse Jackson Jr., and then quickly filed to run for her old seat in the March 2006 Democratic primary against Obama--even though she had publicly supported him for the seat.

Obama challenged the legality of her petitions, as well as the legality of petitions from several other candidates in the race. Palmer realized that Obama had called her hand, and she acknowledged that she had not properly acquired the necessary number of signatures. She had no choice but to withdraw from the race. The other opponents were also knocked off the ballot, leaving Obama running unopposed in the primary.

Rather than winning a position in the Illinois General Assembly by ousting an incumbent or taking an open seat, he appeared to have slipped in the back door on a technicality.

Lost campaign for US Congress against Bobby Rush in 2000

Obama had returned to Chicago from Harvard Law with an eye on the mayor's office [but Mayor Daley was well-entrenched, so] Obama looked at Congress instead, deciding to challenge Rep. Bobby Rush in the 2000 Democratic primary. To Obama, Rush looked vulnerable [because] Rush had tried to oust Daley in 1998--but he was stomped by the mayor. For this reason, Obama saw Rush as an aging politician ready to be replaced by a younger man with a fresh vision.

"Less than halfway into the campaign, I knew in my bones that I was going to lose," Obama wrote. Obama lost the election by 30%.

The reason was summed up by one elderly woman who explained to Obama succinctly: "Bobby just ain't done nothin' wrong." Obama said it became clear to him that he had put himself ahead of the electorate, that his own time frame for advancement was not necessarily the same time frame that voters saw for him.

Senate 2004 campaign theme: "Yes we can"

• Yes, a politician with the ideals and track record of Obama could make a difference and change lives for the better.
• Yes, a black man could win a US Senate seat.
• Yes, "we"--meaning all people--could make a difference too.

"Now they say we can't change Washington?" Obama asked in an earnest voice while stepping forward to fill the camera frame. "I'm Barack Obama and I am running for the US Senate to say, 'Yes, we can.' "

Other commercials used the same "Yes, we can" mantra to appeal to different constituencies. Pollsters have consistently found that urban voters lean toward candidates who are change agents.

2004: Won Senate seat against Alan Keyes, 70%-29%

"What could I say? That a literal reading of the Bible was folly?" Obama wrote. "I answered with the usual liberal response in such debates--that we live in a pluralistic society, that I can't impose my religious views on another, that I was running to be the US Senator from Illinois and not the minister of Illinois. But even as I answered, I was mindful of Keyes' implicit accusation--that I remain steeped in doubt, that my faith was adulterated, that I was not a true Christian."

The rest of the way, Obama kept his head in the game and his hands off the porcupine. That November, in perhaps the most anticlimactic moment of Obama's political ascension, he won the general election by the largest margin of victory in the history of Senate races in Illinois, defeating Keyes by a final tally of 70% to 29%.

GovWatch: "Worked his way thru college" meant 2 summer jobs

The only back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" having to do with a construction job he had one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm. We asked a campaign spokesman if Obama held jobs during the school year, or other summer jobs, but he said only, "He had the two jobs I told you about." Unless Obama had a good bit more employment than his spokesman was able to describe for us, it's a real stretch to claim he "worked his way" through school.

FactCheck: Took Rezko's donations, but never represented him

According to an investigation last year, Antoin Rezko was involved in developing at least 30 low-income housing buildings. A number of the buildings fell into disrepair, collecting housing code violations, and Rezko was sued on many occasions. Obama was associated with a law firm that represented the community groups working with Rezko on several deals. There's no evidence that Obama spent much time on them, and he never represented Rezko directly. So it was wrong for Clinton to say he was "representing Rezko."

Obama has known Rezko, however, for many years, and Rezko has been a major contributor and campaign fundraiser for him since Obama's first campaign for the Illinois state Senate.

"Dreams From My Father" is an archetypal search

Archetypal themes, if only metaphorically, point to eternal truths. Obama's book "Dreams From My Father" chronicles his search for his father [who was mostly absent]. He necessarily becomes an obsession in ways that real and present fathers never do.

Obama REPRESENTS something; doesn't have to DO anything

What gave Obama the idea that he could run for president? Was it that he had evolved a compelling vision for the nation grounded in deeply held personal convictions? Or was it that he had simply become aware of his power to enthrall whites?

Obama is not a conviction politician. His supporters do not look to him to do something; they loo to him to be something, to represent something.

Obama emerged into a political culture that needed him more as an icon than as a man. But this easy appeal has also been his downfall. It is a seduction away from character and conviction.

The challenge is to achieve visibility an individual, to become an individual rather than a cipher. Unless we get to know who he is--what beliefs he would risk his life for--he could become a cautionary tale, an iconic figure who neglected to become himself.

Won Grammy for recording "Dreams from My Father"

As an image-building tool, "Dreams from My Father" has been remarkably effective. But it is too unorthodox to serve as a press release. Not only are there damning references to coke sniffing and dope smoking, but the book also offers a detailed account of his gnawing ambivalence as a young man growing up in a double bind.

When he embarks for Kenya to meet his African family he sees himself as "a Westerner not entirely at home in the West, an African on his way to a land full of strangers... I felt as if I were living out someone else's romance."

Real estate deal with felon was "boneheaded" but ethical

[After accusations of an unethical deal, press investigations showed that], Obama paid fair market value for his portion of the land [as did Rezko]. Rezko was indicted for fraud [unrelated to real estate], but at the time Obama bought his house, there was no public indication of Rezko's problems.

Obama declared, "I am the first to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase from Rezko." Despite all the rumors about Obama and Rezko, none of the evidence indicated any wrongdoing. The mistake Obama made was to have any dealings at all that would give the appearance of impropriety.

First major politician of the post-Baby Boom generation

Obama suggested he may have "a particular ability to bring the country together around a pragmatic, commonsense agenda for change that probably has a generational element to it as well. America is ready for new challenges. This is our time. A new generation is prepared to lead." He promised a new kind of politics instead of the "24-hour, slash-and-burn, negative-ad bickering, small-minded politics that doesn't move us forward."

As the first major politician of the post-baby boomer era, Obama appeals to Gen-Xers who have lived in the shadow of baby boomers and have faced the accusation that those who grew up in the 1970s & early 1980s were self-centered and indifferent to social causes

Most decisive moment: transition from high school to college

A: A decisive moment in my life was the transition from high school to college, because I had gone through a difficult time, not knowing my father, and was, at times, an angry young man. And partly because of the values my mother had instilled in me, those were reawakened in college. And it made me serious about, not just what I could do for myself, but what I could do for other people. It's what led me to become a community organizer. It's what led me to go into public service. And ultimately, it's what led me to this stage.

High school jock--played football as defensive lineman

As a high school freshman, he played defensive line on the football team and was described as a strong lineman, "a real people mover."

Even with his mother gone, [his grandmother] Madelyn said, Barry was essentially a well-behaved teen who spent most of his time involved in sports. "He was a jock," she said.

Goal as youth: Leave the world a better place

Obama, without argument, is imbued with an abiding sense of social and economic justice. He is an earnest, thoughtful, occasionally naive man who has a strong sense of moral purpose, a trait driven into him by his ardently progressive mother.

But Obama is far more complex than just a crusading dreamer aiming to "give voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless," in his own oft-spoken words. He is an exceptionally gifted politician who, throughout his life, has been able to make people o

Planned on presidency since well before 2004 Convention

In just a couple of years, he rose from obscure state lawmaker to national celebrity pursued by paparazzi on his family vacation. He struggled through a self-described "painful year" of just 3 or 4 hours of sleep per night in order to write a best-selling book that would assure his family's financial security & nurture his burgeoning political career. He would be discussed endlessly in the mainstream and alternative media as potentially the first African American to hold the Oval Office. He became a prideful and iconic symbol for millions of black Americans; and he would secure his role as a major national voice for Democrats.

Dreams from My Father originally about Harvard Law Review

This wasn't the book Obama originally sold to his publisher. He had pitched them a work about his experience as the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. After all, at the time, Obama was a modest 33 years old, and his Law Review presidency was his only claim to any modicum of fame.

When Obama began writing, an autobiographical memoir poured forth. Upon its release in 1995, the book sold a few thousand copies, generated mostly positive reviews, and then it faded into obscurity.

That changed dramatically when Obama shot to national fame in 2004. The publisher quickly ran off several new printings, promoted it vigorously, and the book landed on the best-seller lists, giving Obama the first shot of financial wealth in his life.

Favorite authors: E. L. Doctorow & Shakespeare

When I asked Obama to name his favorite author, he cited E. L. Doctorow, the critically acclaimed novelist and outspoken political liberal. The next day, during a phone conversation on a different matter, he made it a point to say that he wanted to change his answer--to William Shakespeare.

Some politicians are infamous for casually mentioning high-minded work that is currently on their nightstand in order to give the impression of being a deep thinker. It is difficult to imagine most politicians digesting Shakespeare before extinguishing the bedroom light. Yet Obama's erudite nature and his own ambitious writings made that answer seem quite plausible.

To understand Obama, understand Hawaii's cultural mix

Hawaii's has grown considerably since Obama's youth, but the essence of the islands' mix of various Asian, Polynesian and Western cultures has persevered. Meeting Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, in Hawaii, opened my eyes to Obama's formative years. The atmosphere of [Obama's school] campus gave me a sense of the unflappable Hawaiian nature at Obama's core.

The night of his Senate primary victory, for example, reporters marveled curiously at Obama's exceptionally cool exterior as others around him exhibited jubilation. One of Obama's greatest talents is that, even in the midst of chaos, he has the ability to project serenity. Hawaii, if not fully responsible, most certainly contributed heavily to this trait.

Father was first African exchange student at U. Hawaii

Obama's father was the son of Hussein Onyango Obama, a prominent farmer in Kenya's Luo tribe. As a boy, Barack Sr. herded goats on the family farm near a poor village called Kolego near Kenya's Lake Victoria. He stood out academically in a local school established by the British colonizers and won a scholarship & then a sponsorship for study at the University of Hawaii.

But when he came to America, his father left a pregnant wife and child back in Kenya. When he returne to Africa, he took another American woman with him, eventually marrying her and having two additional children. An atheist with an analytical mind, he worked for a petroleum company, and for a time he was a chief economist for the Kenyan government.

1990: Elected Law Review president with conservative support

The top job held little appeal for Obama. In 1990 the Review's staff of about 75 students was riven by intense partisan feuding--large factions of liberals and small bands of conservatives. Obama was one of 19 editors who ran for presidency--after the last conservative was voted out of the competition, that faction threw its support behind Obama, tilting the election in his favor, and bestowing on him the honor of being the first African American to hold the presidency. Obama used some of his appointment power to place conservatives in key editorial positions.

Met Michelle Robinson at law firm; married in 1990

She thought it would be improper to date an employee she was assigned to train. In addition, they were the only two African Americans at the law firm. "I thought, 'Now how would that look?' " Michelle said. "Here we are, the only two black people here, and we are dating. I'm thinking that looks pretty tacky."

Michelle tried to set up Obama with a friend, but he showed no interest in anyone but her. Eventually, she relented and agreed to a date. When Obama married Michelle in 1990, he also married into her budding network among Chicago's community of successful white-collar African Americans.

A reformed smoker but occasionally burns one

Traces ancestry to Jefferson Davis, President of Confederacy

Ann Dunham was the Kansas-born daughter of a furniture store manager who harbored a bohemian streak. Ann's mother traced a branch of her family lineage to a famous ancestor-- Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.

The Dunhams moved to the islands in 1960. The two began dating and after a brief courtship, wed--an act that in 1960 was a crime in most states. Newly admitted to the Union, however, Hawaii was young and relatively tolerant, and the family history includes no accounts of Obama's parents suffering abuse on the streets of Honolulu.

His father later earned his PhD from Harvard, but separated from Ann. He returned, alone, to Kenya, where he became an economist in the administration of the new nation.

Lost Congressional primary in 1999 to Bobby Rush

Personal story is basis of political desire to unite

Greeted as hero on visit to ancestral Kenya

Obama and his family flew to Kisumu where 1000s lined the route, many climbing trees for a better view of the motorcade carrying the American that the local Luo tribespeople loudly claimed as their own.

In Kogelo, the tiny village where Obama's father and grandfather are buried side by side and where the octogenarian Luo he calls "Granny" still lives, crowds chanted his name, a tribal singer sang his praises, and children sang songs they had composed in his honor.

"Even though I had grown up on the other side of the world, I felt the spirit among the people who told me that I belonged."

Father died in car crash before Barack got to know him

The way she told the story, he saw the depth of her enduring love for his father. Even though he had left her with a baby to raise, she loved him. "She saw my father as everyone hopes at least one other person might see them."

Any hope of that appeared to end just a few months later when he received a telephone call from Nairobi. His father had been killed in a car crash. He was 46. His son did not shed a tear.

[Years later, when visiting Kenya], Obama stood before his father's unmarked grave. He felt he knew and understood and forgave his father for the first time. His father had not succumbed to despair. He had had the audacity to hope. And for the first time, his son wept for him.

Born in Hawaii; lives on Chicago's South Side

Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.

Full name: Barack Hussein Obama; family calls him "Barry"

Con: let's face it, having a name that rhymes with "Iraq" is not a plus.

Pro: "Barack" is a cool name. Parents all over the US spend hours and days searching for distinctive names for their little princes. "Barack" is a less annoying than "LaTreyell."

Con: The guy shares a name with Saddam Hussein. This is not helpful. Inspired by his Muslim grandfather.

Pro: This should help him with Arab-American voters.

Con: "Obama" is a weird name.

Pro: "Obama" is a cool Kenyan name..

Pro: His family calls him "Barry." "Barry" sounds reassuringly normal. "Barry" sounds like he is "one of us": it sounds like he belongs to America, not Kenya

First black president of the Harvard Law Review

When Obama was 2, his father left the family, returning to Kenya, where he eventually became a senior economist in the Ministry of Finance. Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. He became the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

He worked as a community organizer in New York and Chicago on job-training programs and other projects, and as a civil rights lawyer. He is now a senior instructor in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Ryan quits Senate race amid sex scandal allegations

It is clear a vigorous debate on the issues could not take place if I remain in the race. What would take place rather is a brutal scorched-earth campaign, the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play.

Mother attacked for playing with a black girlfriend

Poverty of political organizers was proof of their integrity

GovWatch: never a Muslim, but school listed him as Muslim

The ad is based on a seemingly solid fact, that Obama was "enrolled as a Muslim" in a Catholic school in Indonesia in 1967, when Obama was six years old. The ad misses out key facts: Obama was required to participate in the school's Catholic rituals and pray four times a day. Teachers said that he was probably registered as a Muslim because this was the religion of his then-Indonesian step-father. More importantly, the same school ledger that listed Obama as "Muslim" also listed Obama as an Indonesian; gave an inaccurate name for his previous school; and made no mention of his mother. The campaign concludes that Obama "is not, and was never, a Muslim." [We agree].

Rev. Wright and flag pins re distractions from real issues

A: Absolutely. And so the question becomes, how do voters draw conclusions about my values? Do they look at the 20 years in which I have devoted my life to community service? Do they look at how I've raised my children? That's a reflection of my values. I don't think that the issue of Rev. Wright is illegitimate. I just think that the way it was reported was not a reflection of both that church that I attend and who I am. On flag pins, you know, I've worn flag pins in the past. I will wear flag pins in the future. The fact that I said that some politicians use flag pins and then aren't acting in a particularly patriotic way, for that to somehow be translated into me being antipatriotic or antiflag--I think that is a distraction

FactCheck: William Ayres never killed anyone with bombs

In fact, nobody died as a result of bombings in which Ayers said he participated as part of the Weather Underground. Other members were associated with 5 deaths, but none in which Ayres was present.

Ayers did say "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough" regarding the group's violent protests against the Vietnam War. That was in a NY Times interview that was published the morning of September 11, 2001. Ayers is now a professor of education in Chicago. Obama and Ayers served together for a time on the board of an antipoverty charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, from 1999 to 2002.

Intertwined search for father and racial identity

A Bound Man: inner turmoil of 1960s black nationalism

Rooted in African-American community but also more than that

He was "rooted," he said, in the African- American community, but he was also "more than that." This is the formulation of a man with a complex identity trying to make himself more recognizable to a society not used to pondering his like. Yet, this is also a formulation that reduces Obama's identity to a banality. What could "rooted" or "more than that" mean? For that matter, what could "African-American community" really mean? A culture? A politics?

To become recognizable, he processes himself through the same dumb racial math-- he is one thing plus something else--that has been the source of his vulnerability. He collaborates with the racial conventions that made him an odd man out. Yet a great part of Obama's appeal in broader America can be chalked up to his complex identity.

Embodies smothering racial power in individual democracy

It doesn't matter that he sometimes goes along with race-based policies, or that he made his own Faustian bargain with affirmative action. No one is excited because Obama nods to identity politics; people are excited because he represents an idealism that opposes such politics. Any black who takes on the near-absolute visibility that goes with seeking such high office will function as both a man and a symbol, and sometimes the two will be at odds. So it is not surprising that Obama the man may vary a bit from Obama the symbol.

More influenced by his race than public perceives

But Obama is not such a person. His books show a man driven by a determination to be black, as if blackness were more an achievement than a birthright. And this need within him puts Obama at odds with himself. His plausibility as a candidate comes, in part, from the perception that he is not driven to be black, that he is rather lightly tethered to his race. But the very arc of his life has been greatly influenced by an often conscious resolve to belong irrefutably to the black identity.

In college, rejected multiracialism for black identity

Joyce opposes blackness out of the same determination to claim an identity that drives Obama to embrace blackness. Obama is determined to distance himself from her & his own mainstream American past. Joyce represents a remarkable new option in American life. Joyce says that whites are "willing to treat me like a person." Blacks are "the ones who are telling me I can't be who I am."

Joyce is Obama's troublesome doppelganger as he grinds through the self-betrayals that help him belong to blackness. What you want, she murmurs--the chance to be yourself, self-acceptance--is not with blackness; it is in the same mainstream you came from.

Whites sense that Barack grants them "benefit of the doubt"

"White folks" is a term that shames Obama. It is bigotry because it paints all whites with the same brush. He has to give whites their innocence until they prove unworthy of it. That is what white Americans sense in Barack Obama. On pain of his own integrity, he cannot be challenger.

Challengers, like Obama's black friend Ray, deprive whites of their racial innocence until they do something to earn it.

Challengers [like Al Sharpton] have come to play an unexpected role in the Obama saga. It is precisely against the specter of an Al Sharpton that a Barack Obama looks so "fresh" and "appealing." Sharpton makes the point--better than Obama's most savvy speechwriter could--that Obama is a black man for all people, a black man who gives whites "the benefit of the doubt.

Fans see Obama as opportunity to vote for redemption

Obama is bound to the antiresponsibility political left because his fate depends on his ability to offer innocence to whites--this despite the fact that he clearly seems to accept the importance of individual responsibility in social reform. Yet he offers no thinking on how to build incentives to responsibility into actual social policy.

Balancing "challenger" for blacks & "bargainer" for whites

No black before Obama has employed the bargainer's charms in pursuit of so high an office. We are used to black challengers, like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Life-long protesters are not likely to have developed an easy reciprocity with white voters. On the other hand, no one ever asks them if they are black enough.

If, to please blacks, Obama does more challenging, he loses his iconic status with whites. He loses white votes because whites don't want a challenging Al Sharpton; they want the iconic Negro. If, to please whites, Obama bargains more, he loses votes among blacks--a vital constituency in the Democratic party.

Bradley effect: black candidates poll above actual votes

Is the Bradley effect history? A 1958 poll found that 53% of Americans admitted they would not vote for a black presidential candidate. In 2003, only 6% said they would not vote for a black president. The people who voted against Bradley, Wilder, and Dinkins despite telling pollsters the opposite were those who, in the abstract, were racist toward black candidates. But in generational terms, openly racist voters have mostly died off.

Veiled racism in dismissing Obama as "unqualified"

One pundit wrote: "There is nothing he can do to address his major shortcoming: the absence on his resume of the kind of major achievement that qualifies a person for the White House." Of course, Obama has many achievements, and it is hard to find a major achievement of most senators running for president.

Obama's experiences challenge the conventional wisdom of the establishment. Obama is a different kind of outsider. He is an outsider accustomed to working with legislators from the other party, and an outsider committed to pragmatic solutions.

Catching a cab, no one questions he's "authentically black"

A: You know, when I'm catching a cab in Manhattan--in the past, I think I've given my credentials. But let me go to the broader issue here. And that is that race permeates our society. It is still a critical problem. But I do believe in the core decency of the American people, and I think they want to get beyond some of our racial divisions. Unfortunately, we've had a White House that hasn't invested in the kinds of steps that have to be done to overcome the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in this country. And as president, my commitment on issues like education, my commitment on issues like health care is to close the disparities and the gaps, because that's what's really going to solve the race problem in this country.

Issue of race has given Senate a black eye

Candidacy taken seriously despite his race or because of it?

What gives people a jolt in their gut about the idea of President Obama is the idea that it would be a ringing symbol that racism no longer rules our land. President Obama might be a substitute for that national apology for slavery that some consider so urgent. Surely a nation with a black president would be one no longer hung up on race.

Or not. Perhaps Obama is being considered as presidential timber not despite his race, but because of it. That is, for all its good intentions, a dehumanization of Obama. What Obama has done is less important than his skin color and what it means. The content of our character is not center stage here. We are a long way from Selma, but not yet where the Rev. King wanted us to be.

Yet, in the grant scheme of things, I will take a little unintended dehumanization over naked bigotry.

Convention keynote speech highlights party's black targeting

The announcement from the Kerry campaign came on the same day that the Democrat launched $2 million worth of ads for television, radio and newspapers targeting black voters. Democrats handily won the black vote in 2000 by a 9-to-1 margin, and the party and Kerry campaign want to boost that turnout this November.

Obama's Republican opponent Jack Ryan dropped out last month over embarrassing allegations in his divorce papers. The GOP's top choices have refused to run, sending Republicans scrambling to line up opposition.

America's race and class problems are intertwined