I wrote a diary two days ago called Barack the Vote!
In that diary I made the case that the grassroots GOTV efforts going on all over the country over the next four days are something you want to be a part of.
I stand by that statement tonight and I'm energized that the members of MoveOn.org, 1.7 million of whom live in Tsunami Tuesday states, voted overwhelmingly to endorse Barack Obama. Some of them will be joining us walking the streets, making the phone calls, going to rallies and getting out the vote in advance of the February 5th primaries and caucuses.
Voter to voter education is the heart of our democracy. We all know that, it's the core of what we do on Dailykos. We teach each other, we debate, and in the process, we become better, more empowered citizens. Here's the thing, the more people know about Senator Barack Obama the more they want to cast their vote for him.
In this diary, I'd like to tell you some things you might not have known about Barack Obama.
Now, I've written about Senator Obama's positions on Technology, Health Care, Immigration Reform, Foreign Policy, Iraq, the 50 State Strategy and how he inspires young people to get involved.
Tonight I'd like to talk about Barack Obama in Chicago.
Let's take a look at the man before the spotlight of the presidency and the US Senate had been put upon him. What we see will tell us a great deal about the character and core policy views of Barack Obama.
This profile on Barack Obama's post-college Chicago years from U.S. News and World Report sets the stage:
After graduating from Columbia University in 1983 with a major in political science, Obama worked as a financial consultant in New York City. But he was bored—and drawn to public service. In 1985, he moved to Chicago to work with local churches organizing job training and other programs for poor and working-class residents of Altgeld Gardens, a public housing project where 5,300 African-Americans tried to survive amid shuttered steel mills, a nearby landfill, a putrid sewage treatment plant, and a pervasive feeling that the white establishment of Chicago would never give them a fair shake.
Jerry Kellman, a social activist who recruited Obama, recalls, "He was very bright, very articulate, very personable, and very idealistic," inspired by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence. Kellman offered Obama a job at the annual salary of $10,000, and he threw in $2,000 so Obama could buy a ramshackle car to get around.
Obama was a stranger to the area but caught on quickly by showing humility and a strong work ethic. "We knew what was wrong in the community but we didn't know how to get something done about it," recalls Yvonne Lloyd, 78, who worked with Obama. Obama insisted on "staying in the background while he empowered us." By Obama's own admission, there were few big victories. But whether it was getting the city to fill potholes, provide summer jobs, or remove asbestos from the apartments or persuading the apartment managers to repair toilets, pipes, and ceilings, Obama encouraged residents to come up with their own priorities with the gentle admonition: "It's your community."
Understading Barack in Chicago is how we peel away the layers and see the real man behind the presidential candidate, let's take a look at an article by Hank De Zutter published in the Chicago Reader in December of 1995. It's called What Makes Obama Run? Here's the thing to remember here, this was written before Barack Obama had come on much of anybody's political radar. I recommend you read the whole article, but here's in part what it said:
From 1984 to '88 Obama built an organization in Roseland and the nearby Altgeld Gardens public housing complex that mobilized hundreds of citizens. Obama says the campaign experienced "modest successes" in winning residents a place at the table where a job-training facility was launched, asbestos and lead paint were negotiated out of the local schools, and community interests were guarded in the development of the area's landfills.
Obama left for Harvard in 1988, vowing to return. He excelled at Harvard Law and gave up an almost certain Supreme Court clerkship to come back as promised. [snip] In 1992 Obama took time off to direct Project Vote, the most successful grass-roots voter-registration campaign in recent city history. Credited with helping elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the U.S. Senate, the registration drive, aimed primarily at African-Americans, added an estimated 125,000 voters to the voter rolls--even more than were registered during Harold Washington's mayoral campaigns.
Excelled at Harvard Law is an understatement. Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude was the first African American to serve as President of the Harvard Law Review. What struck me most, however, about the 1995 Chicago Reader piece was this personal testimony from a colleague of Barack's from the Developing Communities Project, Johnnie Owens:
"What I liked about Barack immediately is that he brought a certain level of sophistication and intelligence to community work," Owens says. "He had a reasonable, focused approach that I hadn't seen much of. A lot of organizers you meet these days are these self-anointed leaders with this strange, way-out approach and unrealistic, eccentric way of pursuing things from the very beginning. Not Barack. He's not about calling attention to himself. He's concerned with the work. It's as if it's his mission in life, his calling, to work for social justice.
"Anyone who knows me knows that I'm one of the most cynical people you want to see, always looking for somebody's angle or personal interest," Owens added. "I've lived in Chicago all my life. I've known some of the most ruthless and biggest bullshitters out there, but I see nothing but integrity in this guy."
There's an emerging theme here. Judgment. Integrity. A passion for social justice. A willingnees to listen and to work towards pragamatic ends. These qualities would serve Obama well in the Illinois State Senate.
Obama entered the Illinois Senate when Democrats were in the minority. That did not stop him from advancing bold legislation and crossing the aisle to lead. Anyone who doubts Barack Obama's political abilities should read this article from the Washington Post on Obama's years in the Illinois Senate:
The heart of Obama's political résumé lies in Springfield, where he arrived in January 1997. He was a newcomer to elective politics after time as a community organizer and University of Chicago law professor operating largely outside the city's Democratic machine. From a district on the South Side of Chicago, he reached Republican-dominated Springfield as a committed liberal, later writing that he understood politics in the capital "as a full-contact sport, and minded neither the sharp elbows nor the occasional blind-side hit."
Yet he emerged as a leader while still in his 30s by developing a style former colleagues describe as methodical, inclusive and pragmatic. He cobbled together legislation with Republicans and conservative Democrats, making overtures other progressive politicians might consider distasteful. Along the way, he played an important role in drafting bipartisan ethics legislation and health-care reform. He overcame law enforcement objections to codify changes designed to curb racial profiling and to make capital punishment, which he favors, more equitable.
And make no doubt, Barack Obama is a reformer:
The campaign finance effort came at the initiative of former U.S. senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.). A Republican and a Democrat in each legislative body were tapped to tighten a system that, among other things, allowed politicians to use campaign accounts for personal expenses. Obama was given the job of representing Senate Democrats by state Sen. Emil Jones Jr., who chose him on the recommendation of Abner J. Mikva, a former judge and Democratic congressman. "He was very aggressive when he first came to the Senate," said Jones, now president of the state Senate. "We were in the minority, but he said, 'I'd like to work hard. Any tough assignments or things you'd like me to be involved in, don't hesitate to give it to me.'" Obama favored more ambitious changes in campaign law, including limits on contributions, but nipped and tucked in search of consensus.
"What impressed me about him was his ability in working with people of the opposite party," said Mike Lawrence, director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. "He had definite ideas about what ought to be contained in a campaign finance reform measure, but he also was willing to recognize that he was probably not going to get everything he wanted." The result, according to good-government groups, was the most ambitious campaign reform in nearly 25 years, making Illinois one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure.
This anecdote from an article documenting Obama's Illinois Senate career from the New York Times tells a similar story about Senator Obama's commitment for reform and resistance to politics as usual:
The new senator, Barack Obama, was a progressive Democrat in a time of tight Republican control. He was a former community organizer in a place where power is famously held by a few. He was a neophyte promising reform in a culture that a University of Illinois political studies professor describes as "really tough and, frankly, still quite corrupt."
"One of my first comments to Barack was, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ " said Denny Jacobs, a former senator and self-described "backroom politician, not one of those do-gooders that stands up front and says we got to make changes."
Senator Obama’s answer? "He looked at me sort of strange."
Obama stuck to his guns and got things done in the face of a GOP majority, and not just major ethics reform in Springfield:
He brought law enforcement groups around to back legislation requiring that homicide interrogations be taped and helped bring about passage of the state’s first racial-profiling law. He was a chief sponsor of a law enhancing tax credits for the working poor, played a central role in negotiations over welfare reform and successfully pushed for increasing child care subsidies.
"I learned that if you’re willing to listen to people, it’s possible to bridge a lot of the differences that dominate the national political debate," Mr. Obama said in an interview on Friday. "I pretty quickly got to form relationships with Republicans, with individuals from rural parts of the state, and we had a lot in common."
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A proven leader with ideals to match
The Senator Barack Obama you see today, the one running for President with the endorsement of Senators Kennedy, Leahy and Kerry and Governors Sebelius and Napolitano is the same man from Illinois these newspaper accounts have documented.
He has the characteristics of a great leader. And, yes, those include impatience for change, an ambition to lead and a willingness to fight hard to win elections, but Senator Obama also embodies pragmatism, an ability to communicate, determination to get things done, and a willingness to do the hard work that leads to uncommon results that no one thought possible.
That's the Barack Obama shaped on the streets of Chicago. The guy who left his post-Columbia University job on Wall Street to be a community organizer for $10,000 a year in 1985. He's the guy who left a record of excellence at Harvard Law to return to Chicago to register voters. And, yes, it's the teacher of Constitutional Law who entered politics as a state legislator and left the State Legislature in Springfield for the United States Senate with a heaping bucketful of accomplishments including the hard work of ethics and health care reform.
We have a chance to nominate this United States Senator to represent our political party for Presidency of the United States. His esteemed opponent, a former corporate lawyer and brilliant debater and United States Senator herself, will tell you that Senator Obama is "full of hopes" but can't deliver on them. She will tell you that he's a man of "false hopes" in fact.
But that's not what the articles above tell us about Barack Obama's record in Illinois. Far from it. We see legislative accomplishments, we see dedication and hard work and bi-partisan efforts to enact progressive reform, we see an "idealistic" young man who honed his style to take a "reasonable, focused approach," we see a legislator whose was described by his peers as "methodical, inclusive and pragmatic."
This is one part of Senator Barack Obama that his opponent doesn't like us to see. There is so much that is admirable and idealistic about this man. He is a sure-fire leader. And yet, he also clearly embodies the qualities we seek in someone who would take the helm of our executive branch: comity, skilled communication, and a knack for coming out of tough negotiations with his ideals and the substance of his reforms intact.
That's Senator Barack Obama from Chicago, and that's another reason to help elect him President of the United States.
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Now, if you're interested in joining thousands of volunteers participating in a nationwide effort this weekend to help elect Senator Barack Obama President and win the Tsunami Tuesday primaries and caucuses, you should click on one of the two links below:
EVENTS or VOLUNTEER
It's that simple.
If you click on EVENTS you will be taken to a page where you can enter your Zip Code and a radius and find a list of events near you.
For example, when I enter my Zip Code, 94609, I get 141 events within a 25 mile radius of me. Some of the events involve doing visibility (I highly recommend this option for those who are shy or new to GOTV), some of the events involve rallies (yet another easy way to break into GOTV and do something social at the same time) and some of the events involve phonebanking and canvassing and also feature training sessions where you can learn to phone bank or canvass in a supportive and positive environment.
Clicking on EVENTS is a no muss, no fuss way to get involved. You can RSVP or, in some cases, just show up, but you don't have to sign up for anything. This is a way to participate and find out what level of participation is right for you.
Now, if you know you want to be involved directly in the effort to do voter outreach for Barack Obama, especially if you are a seasoned volunteer, you can click on the link that reads VOLUNTEER. Clicking on VOLUNTEER will take you to a page that explains the volunteer philosophy of the Obama campaign and allows you to register as a volunteer at my.barackobama.com.
This is the most powerful thing you can do this weekend, wherever you live in the country, to get involved in electing Barack Obama President of the United States.
When you sign up to VOLUNTEER, you join the team of activists that's been on the ground in Iowa, in New Hampshire, in Nevada, in South Carolina, and in every Tsunami Tuesday state. You can phone bank from your house, you can hold events of your own, and if you live in one of the Tsunami Tuesday states, you can join other folks just like you in Getting Out the Vote.
That's it. It's that simple.
EVENTS or VOLUNTEER
And, yes, if you've already volunteered or are planning to, the most effective thing you can do is tell us about it below!
YES, WE CAN.
Oh, yeah, and this is always a great netroots option if you can't volunteer but are so inspired and able to give...(and, yes, it's true, the Obamathon is the work of a 14-year-old fellow kossack, Populista.)