While surfing the Columbia College website I came across a brief snippet announcing Barack Obama as the first College alumnus to become President. Contained in this snippet is a link to an article from 2005 after Barack gave his rousing keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention.
Some great, prescient quotes from the profile below the fold.
After The Speech:
After delivering an eloquent, energizing keynote address at the Democratic National Convention last July, Obama became a national figure whom some are calling the future of the Democratic Party. Politicians from both sides of the aisle acknowledge that he has a natural ability — partly stemming from his biracial and itinerant background — to connect with a range of people, to bring opposing sides together and to move policy forward.
Duh...
"He’s a rare package of brains, values and personality," says John Bouman, an advocate who has worked with Obama on policy issues. "What you see is the real deal. It’s a good break for all of us that he chose politics."
Scott Turrow nails it in the beginning...in March of 2004, before the convention:
Early articles included a feature in The New Yorker, and a long Salon.com essay about him written by his friend, novelist Scott Turow, heralding "The new face of the Democratic Party — and America."
In K.O. voice-over..."Bushhhhed":
And it is not only the Democrats who are interested in this "rock star politician," as he has been called. The day after Obama won the Senatorial election, President George W. Bush called him, announcing, "You’re one articulate fella!" The two ended up chatting for 10 minutes, according to one of Obama’s aides. Two weeks later, Obama accepted an invitation to the White House and had breakfast with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and political strategist Karl Rove.
David Letterman gives him a shout-out following his speach:
Nobody was making quips about his name anymore, except for Obama himself, who continued to relish a joke he tells about how people mistake his name for Alabama or "Yo Mama," and David Letterman, who featured a Top-10 list of "Ways to Mispronounce Barack Obama."
Great quote from David Axelrod. Talk about a prescient button designer!
"Here’s a guy who hasn’t served a day in the Senate, and I just saw an ‘Obama ’08’ [for President] button," says David Axelrod, Obama’s friend and media consultant. "It’s out of control."
Obama on Charlie Rose discusses the youth vote who will help elect him President in the future:
"All you have to do is look at these white suburban kids who are wearing baggy pants and listening to Snoop Dogg to get a sense of how cross-pollination has taken place between cultures."
What exactly is a community organizer? (insert Palin joke here):
Upon graduating from Columbia, Obama attempted a career as a community organizer. He wrote that when classmates weren’t sure what that was, he didn’t have a sufficient answer for them. "Instead, I’d pronounce the need for change," he wrote. "Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. Change in the Congress, compliant and corrupt. Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed. Change won’t come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.
Channeling the late Paul Simon, Senator from Illinois:
Obama criticizes the nastiness of politics, trumpets positive messages and likes to say that Americans are ready for politicians who "can disagree without being disagreeable," a phrase he adopted from the late Illinois Senator Paul Simon.
Some grounded advice from mentor Abner Mikva that you just KNOW Barack will heed.
Friends and supporters have grown mildly concerned at the amount of attention that Obama has received. "He’s risen so fast that it’s very hard, for anyone, not to inhale some of this marvelous national press he’s been getting," says Mikva, his friend and political mentor. "If you start to believe that you can’t do wrong and that you walk on water, you stop asking for advice, and it will be your downfall."
Mikva and others close to Obama say, however, that they believe he can handle it as well as anyone. And if he should stumble over his ego, his wife can be relied upon to prune it.
Barack on his coolness and demeanor:
"I’ve been blessed with a relatively calm, steady temperament and am someone who reminds myself that it’s never as good as it seems and never as bad as it seems," Obama says.
I guess he moved on from "scrubbing floors" and "sharpening pencils":
As for speculation that he could be the country’s first black president, Obama says that he will not run for anything in 2008. He is quick to temper high expectations and scrying about his lofty political future with quips about how he doesn’t yet know where the Senate bathrooms are, and how he’ll be "sharpening pencils and scrubbing floors" for the first few years.
Finally, as Valerie Jarrett understates, truly "fabulous" indeed:
"He says that the first thing is for him to learn to be a first-rate senator," says Jarrett, the finance committee chair. "If that leads to something else one day, fabulous. But first things first."