On the Streets of Chicago, A Candidate Comes of Age

[illinoisprogressive]

CHICAGO—Far from the centers of power and privilege that have spawned so many commanders in chief, it's an unlikely place to incubate a future president. But the seemingly endless clumps of drab brick apartment buildings and patchy lawns on Chicago's South Side are where Sen. Barack Obama learned some of his most enduring lessons about politics, leadership, and the paths to social change. His experiences here, in fact, amount to a Rosetta stone that reveals the essence of the man who has catapulted out of nowhere into contention for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2008.

Community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project in the mid-1980s, Obama, then 23, quickly emerged as a tireless and pragmatic advocate for the community—traits that characterize the kind of president he says he wants to be. "His work as a community organizer was really a defining moment in his life, not just his career," his wife, Michelle, told U.S. News. It helped him decide "how he would impact the world"—assisting people in defining their mutual interests and working together to improve their lives.

Listening. In a speech in February announcing his presidential bid, Obama said, "It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had." His work, he added, "taught me a lot about listening to people as opposed to coming in with a predetermined agenda."

Today, the experiences at Altgeld Gardens echo throughout his campaign. His support last week for allowing Cuban-Americans to increase their contact with relatives in Cuba was an extension of his outreach to both friends and foes in Chicago. The same is true of his pledge to meet as president without preconditions with leaders of rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea. His critics called him naive, but his admirers say it was another example of Obama's commitment to seeking common ground.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070826/3obama.htm