If he had won that race, he would have been a backbencher among 435 members of Congress. Shomon suspects Obama never would have made it that far had he beaten Rush a dozen years ago. "And he cultivated those relationships and took them with him all the way to the White House." "Folks with money, people that normally wouldn't be involved in a congressional race on the South Side of Chicago," she says. Washington, the political columnist, says it was during the 2000 race that others began to see that potential. With his white mother and African father, Obama had a gift for moving comfortably in lots of different circles. And he also proved he could win votes in a variety of neighborhoods, including that Irish Catholic community where he celebrated St. His speaking style evolved as he visited hundreds of churches during the campaign. In politics, Obama wrote, there is no second place. "In that race in 2000, a couple people said that - you know, 'This guy is going to be the first black president of the United States.' And we kind of would laugh about it and say, 'Look, he can't even get elected to Congress,' " Shomon says. Shomon says many still saw the young politician as destined for higher office. Political writers downplayed the loss as a "bump in the road," rather than a dead end. Rush's adult son was shot and killed by drug dealers, causing a wave of sympathy for the incumbent congressman.Įven in losing, though, Obama was impressive. And his own mistakes were compounded by tragedy. Obama wrote later it was a race in which everything that could go wrong did. He was sort of perceived as not one of us." And I think Bobby Rush was very effective at using that against him. "And I remember folks talking about the way he dressed and the way he carried himself and the fact that he'd gone to Harvard. "Some people felt that he was sort of talking over people's heads," Washington says. Columnist Washington says to some African-American voters, Obama still sounded too much like the bright young law professor he was. He also hadn't discovered the speaking style that would later make him famous. Obama had not yet discovered his family's Irish roots. ![]() Obama a green vest and I said, 'Wear this and then you'll be good.' He wouldn't do the O-apostrophe-Bama." Dart, who's now the sheriff of Cook County, invited us to be his guest," Shomon recalls. "We were not allowed to have our own float, but Rep. And he had a limited advertising budget to introduce himself. The young state senator was little known outside his University of Chicago neighborhood. Obama's ambition proved no match for Rush's experience. And I think that that race knocked some of that hubris out of him. "So it took a lot of gumption and some hubris. Black voters are very loath to reject one of their own," Washington says. "It's very difficult to knock off a black incumbent. Political columnist Laura Washington says in trying to topple the veteran lawmaker, 38-year-old Obama showed a certain audacity. But the onetime Black Panther turned civic activist was still popular in his South Side district. ![]() Rush had just lost his own bid for the Chicago mayor's office. Obama decided to challenge Democratic U.S. "And in Springfield, when you're a state senator, you're even less important than a Chicago alderman." "He had aspirations to be heard," Shomon recalls. But campaign manager Dan Shomon says Obama was already aiming higher. He had served less than two full terms in the Illinois state Senate. Election 2012 Are Obama And Romney The Same Guy?Ī dozen years ago, Barack Obama was a young man in a hurry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |