The Education of Barack Obama

When reporters go one on one with Barack Obama, they end up writing things theyll regret in the morning papers. Its a phenomenon called imbibing the Obama juice. One besotted scribe called him tall, fresh and elegant. And the august Atlantic Monthly mooned about his charisma, intelligence and ambition, tempered by a self-deprecating wit, titling its article The Natural. OK, Obama is tall (62), intelligent (Harvard Law, two bestselling books), and damn, hes ambitious (running for president after two years in Congress). But hes no natural. Hes a control politician who had to lose an election, in humiliating fashion, before he discovered the voice, the style and the agenda that have made him a celebrity senator, and the next Next President. As a letter writer for the Chicago Reader, I covered Obamas 2000 campaign to unseat Rep. Bobby Rush, the ex-Black cougar and South Side civil rights hero. Its the only election hes ever lost. As even one of Obamas admirers put it, He was a stiff. You think Al Gore and John Kerry looked wooden, proud and condescending on the campaign trail? You should have seen this peasant Obama. He was the elitist Ivy League Democrat to top them all. I got my first sight of Obama early that winter, at a church in Bronzeville.

It was a Saturday afternoon -- as a sonny boy challenger, Obama wasnt swallowting the Sunday pulpit invitations -- and maybe a twelve people were scattered in the worn pews. This was half-a-decade before -mania was added to Obamas name. derelict December light strained through the stained glass. Obama wore a suit and tie -- he hadnt yet pioneered high-fashioned, open-necked campaign occasional -- and, posing uncomfortably before the baptismal, tried to relax the collection with self-deprecating wit. The first thing people ask me is ?How did you get that name, Obama, although they dont always pronounce it right. Some people joint ?Alabama, some people say ?Yo Mama. I got my name from... If you exigency to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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