On Saturday, October 21, 2006, I stood a few feet away as Democratic Senator Barack Obama wowed a crowd of 2000 to 3000 people at Temple University's McGonigle Hall. Obama noted that the previous week he had been in Pennsylvania also, and promised he would be back frequently in the future.
Three generations of black politicians were in the audience, standing near me. One was represented by former State Sen. Hardy Williams, 76, who ran for the Democratic mayoral nomination in 1971 as a freshman state representative with the backing of a young Rev. Jesse Jackson. A second generation was represented by Michael Nutter, about 50, who is one of three strong African American candidates for Mayor of Philadelphia in 2007. A third generation was represented by Tony Payton, 25, who will become the first African-American resident of the lower Northeast section of Philadelphia to win election to the legislature this November.
Obama clearly had the interest of the crowd, also assembled to here from Congress members Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, and Allyson Schwartz, Governor Ed Rendell, Senate nominee Bob Casey, and likely future Congress members Joe Sestak, running against Curt Weldon, and Lois Murphy, running against Jim Gerlach. The third Philadelphia area likely upset winner, Pat Murphy, running against Mike Fitpatick, was too busy campaigning in Bucks County to attend.
Former Vice-Admiral Sestack spoke with the potential to be on a national ticket someday, but only Obama among those present can be a candidate for President in 2008. He certainly appears to be edging into contention.
If Obama does run, he is likely to be the strongest black Presidential ever, and the first with a possibility of actually getting elected.
He speaks softly, almost conversationally, in an accent influenced by his mother's Kansas roots. He rhetorically downplays traditional black demands for economic justice, noting how minimal demands are for living wages, quality health care, and economic opportunity.
He speaks with awe about how far America has come from where it was. He demonstrates the capability of speaking for our country, as well as to it. He speaks in metaphors using his own life as an example: he conveys his interest in the Presidency by noting how he is traveling all over the country and how when he first ran for the Illinois Senate he spoke to everyone he could.
He praises white people frequently--from the assembled politicians to Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois to the people of Cairo, Illinois, far south of the Mason-Dixon line. In doing so, he weaves the experience of black Americans, to which he refers frequently into the American experience, and makes clear that his vision is one of constructive inclusiveness.
He is a man who clearly understands the politics of race in America, and a man who understands the key element of cooperation with diverse groups of people in achieving national leadership. His latest book "The Audacity of Hope" is titled to, among other things, suggest a future prominent leadership role.
Few politicians have been elected President directly from the Senate; indeed, since the Civil War, there have been as many Presidents defeated for the Senate (Abraham Lincoln and George H.W. Bush) as actually elected to the Senate without first serving as Vice-President (Warren Harding and Johm F. Kennedy).
The failure of the Senate to serve as much of a Presidential launching bad ironically seems to work in favor of an early Obama candidacy: if a longterm Senate career is unlikely to lead to the Presidency, the argument runs, why not run now, with fresh outsider status.
If people want an outsider, you cannot get very much farther out of the traditional Presidential pool than by having the son of a native Kenyan with a name like Barak Obama who defeated, aided by scandals, people far better known with far greater wealth.