There's a new WaPo article about Barack Obama's time in the Illinois State Senate that give an interesting portrait of how that body works and how Barack dealt w/ the High Schoolish cliquey-ness that goes with institutions of that type.
He was a Democrat surrounded by Republicans. A Harvard intellectual chided by good old boys. A biracial progressive in an environment rife with racial tension. A sophisticated urbanite living in a town built on cornfields, 200 miles removed from his family in Chicago.
Even those senators who seemed like natural allies treated Obama with nothing but enmity. Rickey Hendon and Donne Trotter, fellow black Democrats from Chicago, dismissed him as cocky, elitist and, Trotter said, "a white man in blackface." When those insults failed to rile him, the two bought a copy of Obama's 1995 autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," and used the book to concoct more. They teased him for smoking marijuana as a teenager and for being raised by his white, Kansas-born grandmother. Most frequently, they ridiculed Obama for his complex ethnicity. "You figure out if you're white or black yet, Barack, or still searching?"
More and link over the jump...
I think that all of the Freepers going on and on about what a left-wing radical Barack Obama is should read this (I know, I know, read) and try and come up with a new line of attack.
Link here.