Interview with Barack Obama by Off the Bus.

[illinoisprogressive]

I am just posting the last part of the article and a link to read the actual interview. Fascinating person.


Senator Obama: Yes, that's true though it wasn't always intentional, sometimes I just spill soup on my tie and I take it off."

The driver pulls over to a rest stop mid-way to their first event and I am escorted out of Senator Obama's van. He will make his fundraising calls or political organizing calls, wooing local powerful legislators and activists who can turn out the vote.

I return to my photographer's car, where we will follow the candidate for the rest of the day, but with a stern warning from the Secret Service, "Stay behind the caravan by 500 feet."

Senator Obama says, "Good-bye," shakes my hand and flashes his $75 million dollar smile that will shine frequently throughout the grueling day of campaigning in southern Iowa, not a bastion of Democratic voters. But even in these small county seat towns, he draws bigger crowds than any of his competitors.

How effectively Obama can transform these adoring fans - or just curious tire kickers - into caucus voters is the key to his success or failure in the first in the nation caucuses.

Obama holds up a caucus sign up sheet before and after every event. His political organizers are on the ground, handing out literature, gathering sign-up cards. He's doing what you have to do in Iowa - asking for their votes.

It's been a slice to snag this interview for OffTheBus and share this insider glimpse into the rarified air of one of America's most compelling politicians. He's a combination of contradictions; black and white, hip and stiff, patrician and community activist, celebrity and dad, savvy
politician and poetic writer.

But when I look back at my time spent with him, it comes to me that even if he doesn't win the nomination and if he does, even if he doesn't win the goal of the White House, Barack Obama will be O.K.

Beyond remaining on the national radar screen for years to come and selling million-dollar books that he (and not some flack) has written, he's got something else. He's got a life and I can imagine him standing on the sidelines, happy to watch his daughters score a goal even if he missed his this time around.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-davis/inside-baracks-entourage_b_68786.html