Obama was a Constitutional Law Professor at the University of Chicago for 10 years. Here is an essay from a fellow law professor who knows him well.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Excerpts:
"The Obama I know: Terrific listener goes wherever reason takes him
By Cass R. Sunstein, Professor of Law, University of Chicago
March 14, 2008
Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama... he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists...Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through... he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the president's power as commander in chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more."
excerpts continued:
"Obama wanted to consider the best possible defense of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened and offered a counterargument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said he thought the program was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.
This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side. This is the Barack Obama I have known for nearly 15 years -- a careful and evenhanded analyst of law and policy, unusually attentive to multiple points of view.
..Obama has a genuinely independent mind, he's a terrific listener and he goes wherever reason takes him...The Obama we know is no rhetorician; he shines not because he can move people, but because of his problem-solving abilities, creativity and attention to detail... He is most comfortable in the domain of policy and detail."
Here's 211 comments posted on the Chicago Tribune website in response to this article:
http://www.topix.net/...
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On the theme of Obama and the American Constitution, here is a great poster that you can download and print for free. You may wish to make some copies to hand out to others. (I didn't make the poster)
http://tomwfox.files.wordpress.com/...
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On a different note, here's a quote from a Philadelphia Inquirer article from March 12, 2008 entitled "Obama's Keystone Strategy: Register Voters":
"...priority No. 1 for his campaign is registering as many voters as poossible - at least 100,000- before the March 24 deadline....
While Obama's goal is to expand the Democratic electorate in Pennsylvania, Clinton is hardly as focused on doing the same. The New York senator's campaign said it had no similar voter registration drive because that is NOT CENTRAL TO ITS STRATEGY ...
In Philadelphia ... the number of registered Democrats grew by 6,079 between Feb. 11 and Monday."
(I see firsthand that Obama has voter registration drives everywhere in PA. Hillary's website doesn't list any. Obama is trying to build the party over the long-run, which is why many Dems seeking to win new House seats are supporting him.)