On a chilly early-spring day in 2004, I was standing in a shelter in the westbound el train station at State and Lake Streets in Downtown Chicago. We were deep into primary season.
An 8 1/2 x 11 flyer was taped to the glass. A xeroxed photograph of a Black man -- have you ever seen the poor quality of a xeroxed photograph? -- beneath a simple message -- "Barack Obama - Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate"
I thought to myself, "You've got to be kidding me. A Black guy whose last name rhymes with 'Osama' expects be elected to the Senate?? State Rep from the South Side is one thing, but he expects to get downstate votes to be elected to statewide office???"
And this was without hearing his middle name.
Then I began to read about him. Newspapers, various impartial political sources, a la the League of Women Voters -- everything I read about him said that he was an exceptional intellect and an impressive candidate. I read more, got snippets of speeches -- everything I heard told me that he was someone to take seriously.
He cruised to victory in the primaries. The Republican Party, badly in disarray in the State of Illinois, showed just how backwards their mentality is and put up the worst possible opponent, Alan Keyes, really for no other reason than identity politics, as if the state was lunging to Obama merely because of the color of his skin.
But I knew that Obama was special. And when I heard that the Democratic Party tapped him for the Keynote Speech of the 2004 Convention, I told all of my out-of-state friends, "Watch this guy! This guy is the real deal! This is the future of the Democratic Party!"
I am somewhat given to hyping things. But they all agreed after watching the speech that I had greatly understated his brilliance. He was the Future of the Party.
But futures come quickly nowadays. I knew he could be a president one day, but I thought it would come down the road a bit. Maybe he would be a viable Veep nominee for 2008, serve two terms and then ascend to the Presidency in 2016.
The future is now. And he's got a lot of work to do, because there's another future coming very, very quickly.
I'll tell you this though. I sure wish I had that flyer now.