POSTFOCUS
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T was just before midnight last November when Barack Obama stepped on stage in Iowa, trailing in the polls — and taking on one of the biggest names in Democratic politics. His star-making turn as he introduced himself to America at the 2004 Democratic convention was a memory, his 9-month-old presidential campaign lacklustre. Iowa could be the end — or the beginning. The Democrats were in Des Moines less than two months before the Iowa caucuses. Good buzz, like a good Broadway review, travels fast. And Barack Obama, savvy politician and skilled orator, was ready. Obama, considered by some too cool and cerebral, turned up the heat with a passionate appeal. He condemned the same ‘‘old Washington textbook campaigns,’’ chided fellow Democrats — and even took a swipe at rival Hillary Clinton. ‘‘I am not in this race to fulfil some longheld ambitions or because I believe it’s somehow owed to me,’’ he declared. ‘‘I never expected to be here. I always knew this journey was improbable. I’ve never been on a journey that wasn’t.’’ A crowd of thousands stood and cheered. He was on his way. In the year since, Obama has vanquished a Democratic powerhouse, shattered all fund-raising records, swatted away the ‘he’stoo-inexperienced’ mantra levelled at him — and made history by becoming the first black nominee of a major party. Barack Obama’s life has been unconventional. White mother, African father, a childhood spent in Hawaii and Indonesia, working in one of the nation’s poorest communities, studying and teaching at some of America’s most prestigious universities. A past unlike that of any presidential candidate. If his eclectic background fuelled his amazing rise, his foreign-sounding name and race made his candidacy a tough sell in some corners. He fended off countless rumours that he’s Muslim (he’s Christian) and he told would-be voters he knows it’s ‘‘a leap’’ electing a black man with his name. The first pages of Obama’s life story are well-known. His Kansas-born mother, Stanley (her father wanted a boy) Ann Dunham. His Kenyan-born father, Barack Obama Sr. Their meeting at the University of Hawaii, their marriage, the birth of Barack — ‘‘blessed’’ in Arabic — on August 4, 1961. The father’s departure to study at Harvard, and his return just once when his son was 10. An exotic childhood in Indonesia, home of his stepfather, Lolo Soetero; his exposure to Third World poverty, disease and beggars. And then, after his mother’s second marriage ended, the return to Hawaii.
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HERE was little hint that politics was his destiny. As a teen, Obama was smart and well-read but ‘‘he wasn’t much driven or ambitious,’’ says his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. ‘‘He would just hang out with his buddies, playing basketball and body-surfing.’’ When his mother’s work took her back to Indonesia, Obama stayed behind for high school, living with his maternal grandparents. He played golf and poker, sang in a choir, wrote for a literary journal and listened to Earth Wind & Fire. But he lived for basketball. He played for the high school team (his nickname, Barry O’Bomber). The game was his refuge. ‘‘On the court I could find a community of sorts,’’ he said. ‘‘I made my closest white friends, on turf where blackness couldn’t be a disadvantage.’’ Some have suggested Obama’s cool demeanour may be a bit too chilly, but his half-sister Maya says: ‘‘He is equal portions laid back and deeply focused. He has a sense of humour. It’s not all fire inside. There are wide pools of water, too.’’ After high school, Obama entered Occidental College, in Los Angeles, and took his first plunge into politics, speaking at an anti-apartheid rally. He was confident and casual on campus — he favoured jandals, shorts and a trim Afro. But Obama wanted broader horizons, so he
The Daily Post
Saturday, November 8, 2008
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Obama’s incredible journey ELECTION SPECIAL: How a boy from humble, mixed origins made it all the way to the White House moved to Columbia University, New York, and gained a political science degree. It was there he received a call from an aunt notifying him his father had been killed in a car accident. The news led Obama on a journey to Kenya, and his father’s grave. After New York, Obama moved to Chicago. He took a low-paying job with a formidable mission: motivating poor people to participate in a political system that shut them out. Chicago proved a smart move. He worked as a community organiser on the South Side, in poor neighbourhoods ravaged by the loss of steel mills and factory jobs. Obama met black pastors and tried to mobilise people to agitate for themselves. Obama — who calls his organising work ‘‘the best education I ever had’’ — became a skilled conciliator, says Gerald Kellman, who hired him. ‘‘He became very effective at getting people who did not get along, to work together and build alliances.’’ Obama also built roots. He joined the Trinity United Church of Christ and became friends with its pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary comments about race would later threaten to derail his presidential campaign. Obama denounced him and no longer attends the church. In Chicago, he learned about coalitions and the importance of making connections. But he was not all work. He wrote short fiction that captured the feel of the streets. Maya, nine years his junior, recalls how he ‘‘really took on the role of a father’’, after her own father died. He took her on college tours, introduced her to jazz, blues and classical music — and, later, consoled her when their mother died of cancer at 53. Obama took a giant leap to the heady atmosphere of Harvard Law School — training ground for America’s elite. He became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, which brought a flood of publicity. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said a Harvard education ‘‘means you can take risks. You can try to do things to improve society and still land on your feet’’. He worked one summer at a corporate law firm, where he met Michelle Robinson, another Harvard law graduate, from a working-class family. They married, and had two daughters, Malia, now 10, and Sasha, 7. After Harvard, job offers poured in. But he already had a plan. He would return to
BONDING: Obama supporters hold hands at a rally in Cincinnati.
PICTURE / AP
Chicago — and politics. Again, he chose a grassroots job. He ran a voter registration drive that added tens of thousands to the rolls. Obama joined a small, wellconnected boutique law firm that did civil rights litigation. He and Michelle lived in Hyde Park, a racially-mixed neighbourhood that is home to progressive politics, intellectuals and Nobel Prize winners.
FAMILY TIES: Obama, top, with mum Ann, stepfather Lolo Soetoro and sister Maya; centre, with his grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham; and above, with wife Michelle, and their two children.
PICTURE / AP
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E impressed a wide number of key Democrats and party donors who have proved invaluable. Among them is Abner Mikva, a former Illinois congressman and federal judge. ‘‘He’s just a complete political talent,’’ says Mikva. ‘‘He has these great talents and skills to build coalitions.’’ But those skills are nothing without political opportunity. In 1996, when he was elected to the state Senate, some dismissed him as an ivorytower liberal. Obama won over many colleagues in nearly eight years as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School in Springfield, joining them for weekly poker games, befriending suburban and white rural legislators. ‘‘He was very inquisitive,’’ says former state Senator Denny Jacobs, a poker buddy. ‘‘He would ask a lot of questions, even on the floor of the Senate.’’ Obama had several successes after his party took control of the Senate. He passed measures that limited lobbyists’ gifts to politicians, helped expand health care to poor children and changed laws governing racial profiling, the death penalty and the interrogation of murder suspects. He generally was a liberal, but he reached across party lines. Obama stumbled badly in 2000 when he challenged Representative Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther member. Some black politicians questioned whether he was ‘‘black enough’’ for the district. But Obama said: ‘‘I know what it’s like to have people tell me I can’t do something because of my colour. I know bitter, swallowed-back anger.’’ Rush crushed him. Two years later, Obama eyed another office: US Senate. He won and emerged as a rising star, impressing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who tapped him for the keynote speech at the 2004 convention. In 17 minutes, Obama immediately became a force in national politics. He won his US Senate seat in a landslide and, almost immediately, talk began of a presidential run. In 22 months on the campaign trail, Obama walked a fine line, presenting himself as a fresh face and an outsider — but with the knowledge and mettle needed for the White House. He rallied huge crowds with inspiring words and vows to bring change to Washington. In debates, Obama proved adept at answering questions and offering proposals about health care, the financial bail-out and Iraq. Throughout, Obama talked about defining moments — from his victory in Iowa to the day, five months and 53 contests later, when he won enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination. On that June night, he made history. And not for the last time.
First Lady puts politics aside to focus on being ’mom-in-chief’
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ICHELLE Obama will bring the skills of a corporate lawyer to the White House — but she says her priority will be her role as ‘‘mom-in-chief’’ to the couple’s daughters. The White House sees its first black US President and First Lady, and Michelle Obama, 44, is a passionate advocate for her husband’s role. But she says she would not want a direct policy role in the Obama administration. ‘‘My first job, in all honesty, is going to continue to be ‘mom-in-chief’,’’ she said in a recent interview. Daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, are her prime focus. But she says she hopes to focus some attention on ways for women to maintain a work-family balance — and the needs of military families— and
could act as an informal adviser to her husband, just as she did during the presidential campaign. Mrs Obama grew up in a blue-collar neighbourhood in Chicago and went to public school. She often talks about her father — who worked for the city’s public water system — and the values instilled by her parents. After winning scholarships to the elite universities of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she worked for a law firm and, later, in the Chicago mayor’s office. Her most recent job was vicepresident of the University of Chicago hospitals, where she earned more than her husband. Even though the Obamas are now well off — partly due to royalties from Barack Obama’s two books, Michelle
Obama stresses the values she learned growing up. ‘‘When you are raised in a home in which you have love and security and you have people who are sacrificing for you . . . you have an obligation to give something back,’’ she said. ‘‘That’s why community service has been such a big part of my life.’’ Barack Obama describes his wife as his ‘‘rock’’, a source of strength and a gentle critic who keeps him grounded. Their public displays of affection and her
fashion sense — she has been featured in Vogue — contribute to the candidate’s youthful image. In a widely praised speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama shared details of the couple’s life together and said her husband represented typical American values. ‘‘What struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, and even though he’d grown up all the way across the
continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine,’’ she said. ‘‘He was raised by grandparents who were working-class folks like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills — just like we did.’’ Michelle Obama has receded from the limelight since her convention speech, even though she draws large crowds while campaigning solo for her husband. In February, she stirred controversy with comments she made on the campaign trail. ‘‘For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country,’’ she told an audience in Wisconsin. ‘‘And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.’’ Conservatives criticised her as
insufficiently patriotic and the dispute angered some black Americans who said they are held to a higher standard of patriotism. Resistance to racial injustice, they said, has often been cast as unpatriotic. Since then, Michelle Obama has spent time supporting the families of US soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a recent speech in Denver, she reflected on the campaign and the fact that her husband had closed in on the White House. ‘‘We would not have gotten to this point in time in our nation’s history without all of you because something miraculous happened over this year,’’ she told the audience. ‘‘That is something new and it is something quite important. So I am proud of my country — and I am proud — Reuters of my husband.’’