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| Barack Obama talks to the Sun-Times editorial board in 2004. |
Friday was the official opening day of the Obama Presidential Center, and the internet was alive with clips from the celebration of the evening before, with Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder and, of course, stirring speeches by the former president and his wife.
It got me wondering what I wrote about Obama back in the day, and I dug up these three fun chestnuts from when he was running for, and then newly-elected to, the U.S. Senate. The headline is a nickname I sometimes applied to him.
Race against nobody
Senator-to-be Barack Obama stopped by Friday. I give him credit for going through the motions of campaigning against Alan Keyes, who, once the media got bored with the freak show aspect of his candidacy, has sunk into utter oblivion. I picture Keyes alone in some muddy Downstate boondock somewhere, lecturing chickens about how Jesus would vote.
Beyond that image, I haven't decided yet if Obama is Jack Kennedy or Chuck Percy. You remember Percy, the "Wonder Boy from Illinois." He was also going to be president, but fate disagreed because — cue the "Twilight Zone" music — Percy turned out to be too liberal.
I don't think that is going to be the problem with Obama. He's sharp enough to shave with — as Percy was — but he also has a steely practicality. I asked him to lay out his hit-the-ground-running plans for when he takes over in Washington, and rather than the "Gee, I'll have to get my sea legs and learn from the old hands" line of claptrap I expected, he carefully explained how his Democratic star status translates into fund-raising power, which in Washington translates into real power, which means he should have a lock on the plum committee assignments. Smart.
Obama might have benefitted from the complete collapse, in quick succession of a) Peter Fitzgerald, b) Jack Ryan and c) the Illinois Republican Party. But he didn't blunder into where he is today, nor does he seem capable of blundering any time in the near future. Think of him as our ace in the hole. No matter how the presidential election turns out, we're still trading in the broken pull-toy duck of Fitzgerald for the souped-up Corvette of Obama. We should be glad of that.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, Oct. 4, 2004
Honeymoon's over
Abraham Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, pepper his speeches with the tales of individuals — specific brave soldiers and such. While certain presidents later would inject their dogs — FDR's Fala, Nixon's Checkers — the trend of dragooning individual average Americans to lend luster to addresses began with Ronald Reagan.
Now it's almost a duty. No politician can open his yap without it. Sen.-elect Barack Obama, in his as-always moving victory speech Tuesday night, evoked a 105-year-old supporter, marveling that her birth year, 1899, was before such modern conveniences as telephones and automobiles.
Those present applauded, while I thought, "Wrong, pal."
The Chicago Historical Society has not one but two city phone books going back to 1883 — white for homes, yellow for businesses.
I don't fault Obama, particularly. Most of us labor under the impression that, prior to our enlightened age, our forebears crouched in caves and smeared themselves with berries. Not so. Phones were invented in 1876 and became almost immediately popular. And an 1899 Oldsmobile cost the princely sum of $650, but you could buy one. There were thousands of cars on the road then.
Just like 74 percent of Illinoisans, I think Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that he will one day rule a unified and peaceful world. But, as he will quickly learn in the Senate, you ignore the small stuff at your peril.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Nov. 5, 2004
AND THEY'RE OFF . . .
One of the sillier political questions is whether Obama will run for president. He already is running, right now, in front of our eyes. What they mean by the question, I think, is, will he officially announce his candidacy? But that too is silly, like standing at the five-mile mark at a marathon, watching the runners pound by, and wondering whether a leading athlete will decide to finish the last five miles of the race. Sure he will, assuming he doesn't collapse. Few fit marathoners — and Obama, if nothing else, has proved himself a political greyhound — shrug and give up after 10 miles. He might not win. But he sure is running.
The politician that Obama is compared to the most is John F. Kennedy — similarly young (or, if you prefer "inexperienced"). Similarly eloquent. Similarly dynamic and beloved. Both Harvard men.
And both men had a millstone around their necks that supposedly precluded them from the highest office in the land. In Kennedy's case it was his Catholicism. We view this as a dusty bit of history, but we should remember how real and raw it was, how many Americans were unashamed in their anti-Catholic bigotry.
"Our people built this country," a Protestant lady in West Virginia told a reporter. "If they had wanted a Catholic to be president, they would have said so in the Constitution."
Obama's supposed handicap is not that he's inexperienced, but that he's black. Not that his enemies will come right out and argue this directly. Rather, they hint around the edges. Just last week, a longtime Republican Party hack drew attention to Obama's middle name — "Hussein" — as if that were a secret, or significant. It isn't.
This is right on schedule, and — unknown to those who would derail him — plays right into Obama's hands. Again, think of Kennedy, and his primary victory against Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia in May 1960.
West Virginia was 95 percent Protestant, many of them sharing the mind-set of the old lady quoted previously.
Rather than ignore his supposed handicap, Kennedy drew attention to it — just as Obama is drawing attention to his heritage, visiting Africa and such. Kennedy shocked people by talking about his religion — something one just didn't discuss — and how it was part of his personal life but didn't affect his political decisions. He wasn't going to take orders from the pope. Kennedy cleverly made the West Virginia primary into a referendum on the social progress of the state. A vote for Kennedy became a vote for a clear-eyed, unbiased future, while a vote for Humphrey was practically a vote to confirm West Virginia as a nest of Hillbillies. Naturally, Kennedy won.
Obama could do the same thing — the more his enemies try to undercut him as a guy with a funny name and a Muslim grandfather, the more they allude to the fact his dad was black, the more Obama will seem to offer a fresh start from bias. You can vote for him and vote for a nation that unifies its diverse strands into one powerful whole. Or you can support his opponents, and surrender to the narrow bigotry that inflames so much of the world, and contribute to our nation's downfall.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Dec. 4, 2006
Race against nobody
Senator-to-be Barack Obama stopped by Friday. I give him credit for going through the motions of campaigning against Alan Keyes, who, once the media got bored with the freak show aspect of his candidacy, has sunk into utter oblivion. I picture Keyes alone in some muddy Downstate boondock somewhere, lecturing chickens about how Jesus would vote.
Beyond that image, I haven't decided yet if Obama is Jack Kennedy or Chuck Percy. You remember Percy, the "Wonder Boy from Illinois." He was also going to be president, but fate disagreed because — cue the "Twilight Zone" music — Percy turned out to be too liberal.
I don't think that is going to be the problem with Obama. He's sharp enough to shave with — as Percy was — but he also has a steely practicality. I asked him to lay out his hit-the-ground-running plans for when he takes over in Washington, and rather than the "Gee, I'll have to get my sea legs and learn from the old hands" line of claptrap I expected, he carefully explained how his Democratic star status translates into fund-raising power, which in Washington translates into real power, which means he should have a lock on the plum committee assignments. Smart.
Obama might have benefitted from the complete collapse, in quick succession of a) Peter Fitzgerald, b) Jack Ryan and c) the Illinois Republican Party. But he didn't blunder into where he is today, nor does he seem capable of blundering any time in the near future. Think of him as our ace in the hole. No matter how the presidential election turns out, we're still trading in the broken pull-toy duck of Fitzgerald for the souped-up Corvette of Obama. We should be glad of that.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, Oct. 4, 2004
Honeymoon's over
Abraham Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, pepper his speeches with the tales of individuals — specific brave soldiers and such. While certain presidents later would inject their dogs — FDR's Fala, Nixon's Checkers — the trend of dragooning individual average Americans to lend luster to addresses began with Ronald Reagan.
Now it's almost a duty. No politician can open his yap without it. Sen.-elect Barack Obama, in his as-always moving victory speech Tuesday night, evoked a 105-year-old supporter, marveling that her birth year, 1899, was before such modern conveniences as telephones and automobiles.
Those present applauded, while I thought, "Wrong, pal."
The Chicago Historical Society has not one but two city phone books going back to 1883 — white for homes, yellow for businesses.
I don't fault Obama, particularly. Most of us labor under the impression that, prior to our enlightened age, our forebears crouched in caves and smeared themselves with berries. Not so. Phones were invented in 1876 and became almost immediately popular. And an 1899 Oldsmobile cost the princely sum of $650, but you could buy one. There were thousands of cars on the road then.
Just like 74 percent of Illinoisans, I think Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that he will one day rule a unified and peaceful world. But, as he will quickly learn in the Senate, you ignore the small stuff at your peril.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Nov. 5, 2004
AND THEY'RE OFF . . .
One of the sillier political questions is whether Obama will run for president. He already is running, right now, in front of our eyes. What they mean by the question, I think, is, will he officially announce his candidacy? But that too is silly, like standing at the five-mile mark at a marathon, watching the runners pound by, and wondering whether a leading athlete will decide to finish the last five miles of the race. Sure he will, assuming he doesn't collapse. Few fit marathoners — and Obama, if nothing else, has proved himself a political greyhound — shrug and give up after 10 miles. He might not win. But he sure is running.
The politician that Obama is compared to the most is John F. Kennedy — similarly young (or, if you prefer "inexperienced"). Similarly eloquent. Similarly dynamic and beloved. Both Harvard men.
And both men had a millstone around their necks that supposedly precluded them from the highest office in the land. In Kennedy's case it was his Catholicism. We view this as a dusty bit of history, but we should remember how real and raw it was, how many Americans were unashamed in their anti-Catholic bigotry.
"Our people built this country," a Protestant lady in West Virginia told a reporter. "If they had wanted a Catholic to be president, they would have said so in the Constitution."
Obama's supposed handicap is not that he's inexperienced, but that he's black. Not that his enemies will come right out and argue this directly. Rather, they hint around the edges. Just last week, a longtime Republican Party hack drew attention to Obama's middle name — "Hussein" — as if that were a secret, or significant. It isn't.
This is right on schedule, and — unknown to those who would derail him — plays right into Obama's hands. Again, think of Kennedy, and his primary victory against Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia in May 1960.
West Virginia was 95 percent Protestant, many of them sharing the mind-set of the old lady quoted previously.
Rather than ignore his supposed handicap, Kennedy drew attention to it — just as Obama is drawing attention to his heritage, visiting Africa and such. Kennedy shocked people by talking about his religion — something one just didn't discuss — and how it was part of his personal life but didn't affect his political decisions. He wasn't going to take orders from the pope. Kennedy cleverly made the West Virginia primary into a referendum on the social progress of the state. A vote for Kennedy became a vote for a clear-eyed, unbiased future, while a vote for Humphrey was practically a vote to confirm West Virginia as a nest of Hillbillies. Naturally, Kennedy won.
Obama could do the same thing — the more his enemies try to undercut him as a guy with a funny name and a Muslim grandfather, the more they allude to the fact his dad was black, the more Obama will seem to offer a fresh start from bias. You can vote for him and vote for a nation that unifies its diverse strands into one powerful whole. Or you can support his opponents, and surrender to the narrow bigotry that inflames so much of the world, and contribute to our nation's downfall.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Dec. 4, 2006
You said: "Just last week, a longtime Republican Party hack drew attention to Obama's middle name — "Hussein" — as if that were a secret or significant. It isn't."
ReplyDeleteI say: Fortunately, we know that no one with any sense would continue to harp on his middle name. Anyone who would do this would have no self-respect and would be considered the ultimate fool.
"Or you can . . . surrender to the narrow bigotry that inflames so much of the world, and contribute to our nation's downfall."
ReplyDeleteDone and done.
Also thought of him as the black JFK. Even bought Black Jack chewing gum.
ReplyDeleteIt's been around since the late 1800s, but it's no longer easy to find.
President Obama had the best interests of a significant portion of citizens at heart and won a second term.
ReplyDeleteHe was able to provide millions of people an opportunity to acquire healthcare.
By the middle of his presidency a significant opposition to his domestic policies was building across the nation.
We've been saddled with the results of that backlash for 12 years.
While it's pleasant to look back at a much better time we really need to look forward and find a way to wrestle power from these maniacs that are in charge now.
The opening of his center right before the midterms, if it's part of the Democrat strategy doesn't seem to be helping them to regain power it just reminds people who were sick of identity politics that they better get to the polls against the Democrats.
I am desperate for a movement for a charismatic leader who speaks well and inspires people. Was that person at the opening who are they where is our best hope?
Long time reader
The Obama years...his time in Illinois and his eight years as POTUS...now seem as distant as Lincoln's. It feels like a century ago...or even like it never happened at all. In too many ways, the clock has been turned back to the bad old days. I even miss Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 43 now. In retrospect, they don't seem as bad anymore. Not nearly as horrible as what we have dealt with for the last decade.
Deletedear anonymous, stop looking for a dashboard jesus or one of the chickens alan keyes converted downstate to lead us to the promised land. we need a good story teller with some understandable ideas and enough steel in his bones about how to fix the mess that trump and the repugnant party has left us. and yes, i said "his". let's not kid ourselves into thinking this country will elect a woman or someone Jewish this or the next cycle. if you believe otherwise, you're not reading the room.
DeleteYou have forgotten several very strange & disturbing things about Charles Percy.
ReplyDelete1. He was elected solely due to the sympathy vote, because his daughter Valerie was murdered during the campaign. Based on the way she was killed, which was multiple knife thrusts into her torso & breasts, the FBI profilers says a jealous woman killed her, not a burglar.
That leaves the only possibilities that either one of her sisters or her stepmother did it. Based on the bizarre actions of the stepmother immediately after, I believe she did it, got away with it & her husband either knew & kept quiet or simply was so clueless, he never knew. Stepmomma said to the police & the press, that she turned off the house alarm because when the older children returned, they always forgot to silence it & it would go off. She also took at least one TV crew into the house & showed how she claimed to see the burglar leaving, but burglars don't kill like that! Copies of the autopsy drawings by the Cook County Coroner's Office were published in the Chicago papers after the inquest. Every couple of years, the Percys would feed a obviously false story about some new lead, usually to Irv Kupcinet or Art Petacque, the long time crime reporter of the Sun-Times, who always got that in the paper. Every one of those stories turned out to be appallingly false!
2. Percy's bizarre opposition to the Sanitary District's Deep Tunnel Project. At the beginning of it, the federal government was paying about two thirds of the cost, so when have you ever heard of a US Senator opposing a huge federal investment into his own state? Not even William Proxmire ever did that! Not only has it improved water quality here, but Milwaukee, London & Washington DC have built or are building similar projects. All are similarly flat cities with old combined sanitary & storm sewer systems.
3. His truly bizarre turn against Israel. In his third & thankfully last term, he changed from pro-Israel to anti-Israel out of nowhere. After his term ended, he was named the head of a Lebanese funded group, that totally disappeared & never did anything, except of course pay him a huge salary, also better known as a bribe!
This is why I have always despised him! He's a fraud from Day One!.
All sharp analyses. You certainly saw the potential of this Obama guy clearly (well, you were sitting 4 feet away from him!) and these are quite prescient. Kudos!
ReplyDeleteAlas, it's amazing that the last one was written only 20 years ago in this country, when it seems like a completely different reality.
Anonymous essentially beat me to it at 8:26, but to adapt the concluding two sentences: "You can vote for Hillary, Biden or Kamala and vote for a nation that unifies its diverse strands into one powerful whole. Or you can support their opponent, and surrender to the narrow bigotry that inflames so much of the world, and contribute to our nation's downfall."
It's so disturbing to think about how much different this country might be right now, if not for the Fox-abetted sexism that helped lead to Hillary's defeat. How we went from certain folks voting for Obama in 2012 to then voting for the orange felon in 2016 still boggles my mind. (For instance, I'm looking at you, Ohio! 50.67% for Obama in 2012, 51.69% for Beelzebub in 2016...)
My adopted state of North Missitucky (AKA Ahia) voted for Obama TWICE...and then went for Orange Jeebus THREE times! And by a goodly margin each time. Does that tell you anything?
DeleteIt tells me that this hellhole, this northernmost Southern state, has gone from light blue to purple to red to deep red in my nearly 34 years here. Too many Ohioans hate people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and all the other folks that Orange Julius hates. So they love his sorry ass. Especially all the hix from the stix.
Liberal, left-leaning, and progressive people from elsewhere no longer choose Ohio as a possible place to relocate. It's now off the table. Too old, too white, too racist, too homophobic, too religious, and too conservative..
People in Ohio hate anybody who isn't exactly like them, and those people get the blame for all their poor life choices, mistakes, and failures. And they also blame "them" for "ruining" their cites and towns...and for "taking the jobs away."
Ohio is a green and gorgeous and beautiful state, especially in the fall. But Ohioans mostly suck. I married my college sweetheart and soulmate, whose family has been here for nearly150 years, at the age of 45. She is the only reason I came here from Chicago, and she is the only reason why I've remained here..
I'm from Ohio, but left after college. It was a great state, which I missed to a fair extent, and it used to bother me when people in Chicago confused it with Iowa. (Aside from having 3 vowels among 4 letters in their names, the similarities were not that significant.)
DeleteI just am mystified by how the transformation from light blue to deep red took place. There have always been haters, but SOMEBODY managed to vote for Obama twice. I really think part of it is that people who wouldn't have bothered to vote for McCain or Romney because they were just "part of the system" were emboldened by the "celebrity businessman" who "tells is like it is," (i.e. lies about everything, but rails about things and people that you don't like) to come out of the woodwork and vote. And they discovered that being openly racist and sexist, while proudly supporting an incompetent, libertine criminal was not a deal-breaker in this brave new online world.
Of course, the Democrats have their own problems and have contributed to this mess, but Sherrod Brown is a legitimate "good guy" and his losing in 2024 was bitterly disappointing.
BTW, Grizz, are you familiar with the fact that "Ohio" is now used by some to signify "weird, awkward, cringeworthy," along with "boring" or "foolish"? As in "only in Ohio," or "That's so Ohio."
Not a good sign when the ole home state is now competing with the Florida Man for national disdain.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang/ohio
Yes, I have seen that online, in too many places...even on Trump-hater pages, of which I am a member of several. Pisses me off, but Ohio Man is not as bad as what used to be said a dozen or so years ago..."That's so gay..."
DeleteI say "only in Ohio" myself, when I hear bizarre or weird local stories...especially crime stories. There are some really stupid criminals here. A woman was carjacked just down the street from my house. He never got to the dead end that would have stopped him, because he didn't know how to drive a stick. I guess he took off running, down a side street.
Sherrod Brown is one of the few "good guys" we have left. The TV screen has been flooded with hater ads...too liberal, too leftist, too progressive. I hope he can come back, but I'm not optimistic.
We're Oklahio now...and Cleveland is just Tulsa with more snow. Ohio's cities are Blue Islands in a Deep Red Sea. The sea levels are rising--and the edges of the islands are being nibbled away.
Oh, and that carjacking victim? The woman knew he had the drop on her, and so she didn't draw her own weapon and fire. It was his lucky day.. She would have ventilated him. She was an FBI agent. So Ohio.
DeleteJackash, comy was the real villain. his non=indictment indictment a week out killed her.
ReplyDeleteand also mr. s "I picture Keyes alone in some muddy Downstate boondock somewhere, lecturing chickens about how Jesus would vote." was, as usual, nicely played.
These are great Mr. S! Thx for sharing. I wish the Mitch didn't corral the GOP on day one to tell them no to support any of his initiatives. ACA was a miracle-I saw him sign it in Iowa City. I tried to watch the video of the event but keep tearing up. I hated past presidents esp. the younger Bush but the Cheeto, um. Had JFK not been killed and election stolen by a hanging chad for Al Gore-our country would be in a different, healthier, happier, prosporus place and the globe itself not collapsing.
ReplyDelete