As my title clearly says, I am an Obama supporter. I am also a Chicago resident who has seen Obama rise through Illinois politics to this grand stage he is on now.
There have been many attacks from the HRC side (Taylor Marsh and dKos HRC supporters) about how Obama's message of Hope is false, and his background in politics has been "too easy". His first state election in 1996 was uncontested, and his Senate race against carpet-bagger Alan Keyes virtually uncontested. Through these two races Obama showed he has the strength to stand up to the toughest of opponents.
I would like to say that Obama ran an incredible campaign in the Senate primary. He defeated Blair Hull, who had spent $29 million of his own money. I was a Hull supporter at the time who was swayed to Obama's side by his Illinois record and strong leadership.
In '96 he was critisized for clearing the primary of opponents by contesting petitions. His enemies cite this as an instance of Obama being a hypocrite for voter rights. I would say the opposite.
[T]he unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled.
"I gave some thought to ... should people be on the ballot even if they didn't meet the requirements," he said. "My conclusion was that if you couldn't run a successful petition drive, then that raised questions in terms of how effective a representative you were going to be."
Asked whether the district's primary voters were well-served by having only one candidate, Obama smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator."
His primary opponents had used ineligible signatures on petitions, some of which were surely forged and paid for by staffers. It was Obama's diligence in this matter that cleared the way for him - he would've rather ran a clean campaign against any of his opponents, but they are the ones that cheated.
For enemies of Obama to bring up any perceived morality, ethics, or hypocricy issues is strange. Obama will fight for us, and he will do it with our best interests. He WILL fight for us; not because a lobbyist donated to his campaign, or because he has eyed the Presidency since kindergarten. He will fight for us in an ethical manner, and he will be straightforward with us. He will be ethical and straightforward with our allies and our enemies. He is not naive, and he is not inexperienced. Knowing the tough times that our global community is going to face in the near future, there is nobody I would rather have leading us into prosperity than Barack Obama.