Sunday, February 4th, 2007...8:23 pm
Planet Barack
Barack Obama’s candidacy is interesting for a number of reasons: first African-American to be a real contender, a candidate who has spent a lot of time overseas, a generational shift from the baby boomers.
There is something that hasn’t been talked about too much: Obama cut his teeth in Chicago politics not in the vaunted Chicago Machine, but as a community organizer. I was turned on to this aspect of his background by a snippet posted on Tapped last week. The sort of organizing he was involved in kept a distance from traditional politics, prefering to act from the outside. Needless to say, this was not necessarilly the best way to produce elected political leaders (not their aim anyway). Here and there, however, some have worked their way into elected positions.
What is interesting about this is that Obama dealt with policy questions in an entirely different way than most elected officials have had to, which would certainly make him a very different president than we have had in some time.
Tapped linked to two other articles dealing with Obama’s early career, one from when he ran for Illinois State Senate, and another he wrote while a law student.
NB - The “father of community organizing” was a also a Chicagoan, Saul Alinsky. A young admirer from Chicago named Hillary Diane Rodham wrote her undergraduate thesis on him.
2 Comments
February 5th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Obama did cut his teeth in Chicago politics. It is not coincidental that Congressman Bobby Rush (former Black Panther) found himself in a primary race against Obama. Bobby Rush had been a thorn in the side of Daley for years. Bobby even made a run against Daley in 1999. The next Congressional election saw Rush have a rare contested primary. I remember the election fairly well, I lived in the District then. Obama had a pretty good campaign and money for someone who was challenging a sitting congressman. Rumors were running that Daley was very “grateful” that somoene had challenged Rush. Probably one of the smartest things that Obama ever did.
February 5th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Saul Alinsky is known for training some of the best organizers in the country. Best known of them all is Arizona’s very own Cesar Chavez. Chavez spent a year in Chicago being trained before going back to California and starting UFW.