February 2004: "I don't know him," Bush said. "Oh, you will, Mr. President," Schakowsky responded.

[Richardo]

Ever since Obama declared his candidacy, I've often thought of this exchange from the 2004 campaign. Little Lord Fauntleroy arrogantly thinks he can marginalize someone by asserting he never heard of him. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) delivers the precient smackdown:

...Many Americans -- indeed, many Democrats -- had never heard of the charismatic politician before he delivered a stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July 2004.

He called on Americans to leave behind party polarization, saying, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

The speech instantly made Obama a star, with political pundits suddenly predicting the state senator who had not yet been elected to the U.S. Senate might someday be positioned for a presidential run.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said at the time that during a meeting with President Bush in February of 2004, the Congresswoman wore an Obama button on her coat.

"I don't know him," Bush said, according to Schakowsky.

"Oh, you will, Mr. President," she responded.

Just another reason I'm gratified Barack is our nominee. :patriot:


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=4979853&page=1

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

1. Excellent,

:D

[Gabi Hayes]

2. Sen Schakowsky?

[Richardo]

12. Let us hope

:patriot:

[JohnnyCougar]

16. That would be truly awesome!

[Pirate Smile]

3. Here is the original New Yorker article - 5/31/2004

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/31/040531fa_fact1?currentPage=all

The Candidate
How the son of a Kenyan economist became an Illinois Everyman.
by William Finnegan

he climax of Barack Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” occurs in rural Kenya when the author sits between the graves of his father and his grandfather and weeps. Obama, then in his late twenties, hardly knew his father and never met his grandfather, but in the course of writing the book he had learned their stories in devastating detail. Both were proud, ambitious men who travelled far from the Luo-speaking villages where they grew up—indeed, Obama’s grandmother still has her son’s Harvard diploma hanging in her house nearby. Their respective struggles in the world ended painfully, in bitter loneliness. Beside their graves, Obama, a middle-class American, both mourns and, for the first time, understands his African forebears.

People in Illinois seem largely unaware of Obama’s long, annealing trip into their midst, although they often remark on his unusual calm. Now forty-two and a state senator, Obama emerged, in March, from a raucous primary as the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate. In a seven-person field, he received a remarkable fifty-three per cent of the vote—he even won the “collar” counties around Chicago, communities that supposedly would never support a black candidate. And everyone recalls that, as the votes were being tallied at his headquarters on Election Night, he seemed to be the least agitated person in the place.

-snip-
On a raw, rainy late-April day in Springfield, the state capital, Obama, who represents a district on Chicago’s South Side, ducked out of the statehouse for a meeting with labor leaders from southern Illinois at an A.F.L.-C.I.O. building down the street. “This is a kiss-and-make-up session,” he told me as we entered a ground-floor conference room—the state A.F.L.-C.I.O. had supported one of his opponents in the Democratic primary. Twenty-five white males, in windbreakers and golf shirts, sat around the room. They represented the building trades—the painters’ union, the carpenters.

Obama, lanky and dapper in a dark suit, his shoulders almost strangely relaxed, seemed to know most of the men there. He broke the ice with a joke at the expense of Ed Smith, a huge, tough-looking delegate from Cairo. Obama had met Smith’s mother on a recent downstate swing and had discovered that “she’s the one who really calls the shots there.” Smith laughed, and the other delegates said they wanted her phone number. Then Obama gave a short, blunt, pro-labor speech. The men eyed him carefully. Heads began nodding slowly, jaws set, as he drove his points home: “two hundred thousand jobs lost in Illinois under Bush; overtime rights under threat for eight million workers nationally; the right to organize being eroded.” Then he said, “I need your help,” and took questions.

[Richardo]

4. Thank you for that, Pirate Smile

:patriot:

I love the New Yorker.

[Pirate Smile]

8. You're welcome. I'm reading the article - I have to add this paragraph:

Back at the statehouse, Obama, who is chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, rushed from meeting to floor vote to committee room. Everybody seemed to want a word with him. Terry Link, the senate majority whip, complained about Obama’s successes in a long-running poker game. “I’m putting his kids through college,” Link said. Kirk Dillard, a leading Republican senator from the Chicago suburbs, looked chagrined when I asked him about Obama. “I knew from the day he walked into this chamber that he was destined for great things,” he said. “In Republican circles, we’ve always feared that Barack would become a rock star of American politics.” Still, Dillard was gracious. “Obama is an extraordinary man,” he said. “His intellect, his charisma. He’s to the left of me on gun control, abortion. But he can really work with Republicans.” Dillard and Obama have co-sponsored many bills. Though Dillard was unwilling to concede the general election to Obama, he described Illinois as “a major player in recognizing African-Americans. We are proudly the state that produced Abraham Lincoln.”

edit to add - I didn't realize this: To survive this campaign financially, the Obamas will take out a second mortgage on their apartment. This was the 2004 Senate race.

[Richardo]

18. ...that last sentence is really telling...

Four years ago, a second mortgage, now: true 'public' financing - from the public. Awesome.

[Cha]

5. I told one of my friends at work about that exchnage

back in 2004 when bush was on his recent "African Tour" and these Native men were holding "OBAMA" signs as his limo drove past. :)

[Adelante]

11. What Bush saw in Africa

[Cha]

14. Yeah, that was it! Thanks for

the visual WesDem!

Oh, it just wasn't OBAMA..it was OBAMA 08 :D

[Richardo]

15. Sweet.

:rofl:

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. I lived in Jan Schakowsky's district until two years ago.

There is talk of her being Obama's replacement in the Senate.

[Cha]

7. I love Jan Schakowsky!

I hope she does become Senator from Illinois.

[PassingFair]

22. She is the FINEST we have!

Whenever I check a roll call, there she is,
on the CORRECT SIDE.

Every. Damn. Time.

I LOVE her!

[mopinko]

13. it better be jan, but who knows what blaggo will do. i heard a rumor

that he is thinking of appointing tammy duckworth. my head will explode.
but i was also told that she probably wouldn't take it. she was asked to run again in 6, but declined. whoever gets it will have to defend it in 2 years. i don't think tammy would take it.

[JohnnyCougar]

17. I lived in Rahm's district, but I met a bunch of Schakowsky people.

Having her in the Senate would be wonderful!

Too bad I live in Racist County, Florida now. How is Chicago? You guys still holding down the fort there?

[Epiphany4z]

9. I remember that

2004 speech. I watched it with my daughter who was 14 at the time...we looked at each other and said that man is going to be president someday.

[Arugula Latte]

10. Funny you posted that. I was thinking about that anecdote the other day.

Obama winning will be the biggest "Fuck You" ever to Bush. I can't wait. :bounce:

[my3boyz]

19. Same thing he is doing now...

<<The left in Illinois, as it happens, is monitoring Obama for similar trimming toward the political center. When his speech at the antiwar rally in 2002 was quietly removed from his campaign Web site, activists found that to be an ominous sign. It is traditional, of course, for politicians to tack to the center after winning a primary, hoping to attract swing voters. >>

This is exactly what Obama is doing now with the FISA legislation. He can't give the right amunition for the general election. I don't see why people can't understand that. Do they want him to fight this but lose the general election? Or do they want him to be elected so he can make some real changes?

[bermudat]

20. I remember reading that. That was 4 years ago?

Time flies.

[Richardo]

21. He was still a State Senator -

...time flies approaching the speed of light