Obama - A Promise of Change

Chapter 6

Prev List Next

CHAPTER.

20.

The Speech.

We must make the American people hear our tale of two cities. We must convince them that we can have one city, indivisible, shining for all its people.

a"MARIO CUOMO IN HIS 1984 KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.

Weave been told that the interests of the South and the Southwest are not the same interests as the North and the Northeast. They pit one group against the other. Theyave divided this country, and in our isolation we think government isnat gonna help us, and weare alone in our feelings. We feel forgotten. Well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. We are one nation. We are the United States of America.

a"ANN RICHARDS IN HER 1988 KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE CONVENTION.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But Iave got news for them, too. We worship an awesome G.o.d in the Blue States, and we donat like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, weave got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

a"BARACK OBAMA IN HIS 2004 KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE CONVENTION.

Barack Obamaas advisers might not have been successful at getting their candidate into the network television lineup at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, but winning him the keynote address placed historical importance on Obamaas speech. Mostly, it alerted the media elites that he was someone the party wanted to showcase for the future; the speech would be broadcast nationally on various cable networks. So when Obama arrived in Boston that week, he was greeted as a celebrity-in-the-making. Political pundits and national journalists pontificated that by weekas end Obama would either be a major star or a major dud.

The convention was held in Bostonas FleetCenter arena, with fifteen thousand media personnel credentialed to cover the events of the week. Political conventions used to be where the presidential candidates waged their final battles with party bosses for the nomination. But over the past generation, those battles were shifted to the electorate in key primary states. Thus, the convention had evolved primarily into a week of pageantry in which the party sells its candidates and its ideas to the American electorate, largely through the prism of those fifteen thousand media members. Senator John Kerry of Ma.s.sachusetts had won the nomination, and his convention theme expanded on the former Vietnam War veteranas pledge to make America astronger at home and more respected abroad.a The specifics of Obamaas attendance at the convention were fraught with uncertainty from the beginning. Illinois legislative leaders and Governor Rod Blagojevich were locked in an intense budget battle that threatened to spill the senate session into convention week and force Obama to fly back and forth between Boston and Springfield. But after a late-night session in the legislature, the budget was finally resolved, and Obama arrived at his Boston hotel after midnight on Sunday morning. Running on sheer adrenaline, Obama and his aides found themselves b.u.mping into each other in the hotel overnight as they walked about, too hyped to sleep and trying to work off nervous energy. Obamaas frenetic convention week was primed to start off with a banga"he was scheduled to appear on NBCas highly influential Meet the Press on Sunday morning, just a few hours later. David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs and other advisers had spent more time prepping him for this appearance than for his keynote speech. Tim Russert, the showas host, had become known as one of the sternest questioners in Washington. He had a dogged research staff and he was fond of pulling up unfortunate past quotations from his guests and making them squirm trying to explain the statements. Gibbs had negotiated with a Russert producer over what types of questions would be fair game in the interview. Gibbs stressed that Obama was still only a state senator and he tried to blunt any complex foreign policy questions that might trip up his boss, who at this point was more schooled on domestic and state issues than foreign affairs.

A few minutes before Meet the Press, I caught up with Obama and his team in a waiting room at the arena. Despite the huge week ahead of him, Obama emanated his typically calm, confident demeanor. Asked how he was feeling, he responded only, aTired.a Indeed, he had a now routinely fatigued look about hima"heavy eyelids, puffy bags beneath his eyes. As he disappeared to do the show, Axelrod and Gibbs settled into two chairs near a television monitor. Russert first asked Obama what he hoped to achieve in his speech. Obama told Russert, aIf we can project an optimistic vision that says we can be stronger at home, more respected abroad, and that John Kerry has the message and the strength to lead us in that fashion, then I think weall be successful.a Gibbs and Axelrod turned to each other and smiled. This was exactly the message that party officials had scripted for their candidates and speakers. Their man had hit his marks perfectlya"and on the very first question. It wasnat long, however, before Obama found some nasty curve b.a.l.l.s thrown his way. The upcoming issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, Russert said, quoted Obama as saying that sometimes Kerry lacked the necessary aoompha as a candidate. aWhat does that mean?a Russert asked. At this, Axelrod got up from his chair and began pacing. The magazine had not yet hit the newsstands, and Obama and his team had no knowledge that he had been quoted disparaging the party nominee. But Obama handled the tough pitch magnificently. aWell,a Obama said. aI think that, you know, early on in the campaign, and this was an interview that took place several months ago, you hadnat gotten a sense of John Kerry as the man, and I think this convention is going to be consolidating the impression that weave been getting over several months that this is somebody whoas going to be fighting for working families, somebody who has the strength to lead internationally. This is somebody who has the life experience as a soldier, as a prosecutor, as a lieutenant governor, and for two decades as a U.S. senator, who is as well prepared as any candidate has ever been to lead our country to the kinds of promise that I think all of us hope for.a Not only did Obama deftly handle the question, but again, he hit his talking points about Kerryas rsum. Axelrod and Gibbs both exhaled, and Axelrod took his seat.

The questions did not get much easier. Later, Russert flashed a quote from a Cleveland Plain Dealer story way back in 1996, when the Democratic convention was held in Chicago. In the article, Obama complained that people with money gained undue access in politics. Obama told the newspaper that aChicagoans have grown especially jaded watching the Democrats raise cash for this monthas national convention in Chicago. The conventionas for sale, right? You got these ten-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners, Golden Circle Clubs. I think when the average voter looks at that, they rightly feel theyave been locked out of the process. They canat attend a ten-thousand-dollar breakfast. They know that those who can are going to get the kind of access they canat imagine.a Gibbs and Axelrod again looked at each other. aWhere did that come from?a Gibbs asked, obviously blindsided again. Axelrod lifted his shoulders and shook his head. Russert then said to Obama, aA hundred and fifty donors gave forty million dollars to this convention. Itas worse than Chicago, using your standards. Are you offended by that, and what message does that send the average voter?a Gibbs looked down. aOh lord,a he said. But again Obama handled the difficult query with aplomb. He responded, aYou know, I think that politics and money are a problem in this country for both parties. And I donat think thereas any doubt about that. One of the things Iam proud about, though, is that when you look at John Kerryas record, what you know is hereas a person who is consistently voting on behalf of what he thinks is best for America and the country. I donat think a convention changes that. I do think that the more we as Democrats can encourage partic.i.p.ation from people who at this point feel locked out of the process, the stronger we are. One of the strengths of our party has always been the fact that we are closer to the average Joe, the guy who is trying to make a living, the guy whoas trying to send his kids to college and pay his bills.a Another winning answer to a difficult question.

At the conclusion of the interview, Axelrod and Gibbs hopped up from their chairs. Gibbs donned a grand smile. Axelrod simply looked relieved. Their prize pupil was unflappable in his first major hazing by a Washington journalist. aThis was his aWelcome to the NBAa moment,a Axelrod said, heading out the door to find Obama. The next day, in commentary with Russert, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw called Obamaas interview aa very strong appearance.a Obama had pa.s.sed his first major test in Boston, and he had pa.s.sed with flying colors.

THE NEXT DAY, HOWEVER, HE WOULD LEARN HOW FICKLE THE PRESS can be with celebrities. Despite his shining performance amid the media circus, the Chicago Sun-Times chose to focus on his Kerry comment in the Atlantic Monthly. The tabloid splashed a headline across its cover: aOomph!a This move perplexed Obama, who was just beginning to bask in a gauzy haze of media adulation. aIs that good reporting, good journalisma"to take something I said months ago and print it now?a he asked me. Obama was learning that everything he said, past and present, now blared through a megaphone.

Over the next couple of days, Obama hopscotched through a gauntlet of media interviews, fund-raisers and breakfasts, lunches and dinners with various people of influence. Celebrity at a political convention can be determined by the size of the media gaggle that naturally surrounds an individual. Walking through arena corridors or near the huge media tents outside, one would come across an occasional huge huddle of humanity, with the inhabitants thrusting cameras and voice recorders toward a famous subject in the middle. The biggest of these huddles, at least that I saw, engulfed the left-wing bomb-throwing filmmaker Michael Moore. But senators and congressmen and big-city mayors drew their own gaggles. And of these, Obamaas was among the largest. He could rarely take a few steps before being stopped by an autograph hound, well-wisher or reporter. He consistently had two or three staff members around him, guiding him from one appearance to the next and trying to manage the free-flowing entourage of reporters trailing him. Obama was now under an intense media glare unlike anything he had ever endured. On the arena floor, as Obama stepped up to the set of CBSas Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer offered him a hearty handshake. aYouare the rock star now!a the smiling veteran newsman said in his mild southern drawl. Obama demurred. aTalk to my wife and sheall tell you that isnat so,a Obama said in a self-deprecating manner, using Mich.e.l.le as a foil to tamp down his ego. (This would become standard routine as his fame grewa"using his wifeas taskmistress side as a way to display public humility and keep his feet on the ground.) As Obama gave interviews to a dozen reporters at a time, and appeared on one national media show after another, I could not help but think back to a chilly Chicago evening in January when it was just me making him uncomfortable as I shadowed him day by day. And I recalled a specific moment heading into a Chicago fund-raiser thrown by black professionals when Obama was notified that he had to do a radio interview before going into the event. Taking the call from the radio station, Obama asked that I step out of the SUV while he did the interview because having a second reporter eavesdropping gave him a sense of abeing in a hall of mirrors.a Now, with this scene in Boston, with a handful of journalists listening to his every utterance, what a hall of mirrors this was!

Tuesday, the day of the keynote speech, was even more maddening. Throughout the day, Obama was clearly the conventionas hottest commodity, with more than a dozen reporters and photographers keeping pace with his every step. His day began at six oaclock in the morning with a green-pepper omelet that aides had fetched from an all-night diner because the hotel restaurant had not yet opened. Obama then headed to the FleetCenter, where he appeared on the morning shows of all three TV networks before sitting down with Ted Koppel of ABCas Nightline. Next, Obama had breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel with the Illinois delegation. Here, he allowed that his toughest critica"Mich.e.l.lea"had given a modest thumbs-up to his speech. aWe brought her into the practice room,a he told reporters. aHer a.s.sessment was that I wasnat going to embarra.s.s the Obama family.a Like an athlete warming up for the big game, he allowed his extraordinary self-confidence to flow freely. aI have high expectations of myself,a he said. aAnd I usually meet them.a As Obamaas entourage rushed out of the delegation to the next event on his list, d.i.c.k Kay, a boisterous, barrel-chested television reporter from Chicago, hounded Obamaas recently hired campaign press secretary, Julian Green. aWhen am I going to get my time with him, Julian? When? When?a Green, an attentive and always nattily dressed African-American man in his mid-thirties, could only mutter that they were running late and he would do the best he could. This foreshadowed a growing dilemma for Greena"how to keep the hometown media happy and still satiate the hungry national press corps. After all, Obama still had an election to win in Illinois.

Shortly after noon, Obama delivered a short address at a rally sponsored by the League of Conservation Voters, which had indirectly contributed several hundred thousand dollars to his primary campaign in the form of television advertising on his behalf, run mostly in the Chicago suburbs. aI canat give you a long stemwinder,a he told the group, apologizing. aI canat throw out my throat for tonight or Iave had it.a As he came off the stage, a corps of reporters mobbed him and insisted on an interview session. They interrupted each other with questions on topics ranging from reparations for black Americans to Obamaas African-American heritage to his proposals for boosting the economy. Trying to manage the chaos, Green appeared near the end of his ropea"and it was still early afternoon. aI need five Baracks today,a Green said in frustration. aEveryone wants a piece of him. This is crazy, man.a Racing back to the FleetCenter in an SUV, Obama inhaled a turkey and cheese sandwich with spicy mustard as he tried to field questions from the half-dozen reporters traveling along. When one reporter rambled on about major political figures who had given keynote speeches before him, Obama answered through a mouthful of turkey and bread, aAre you asking me how I suffer in comparison?a After interviews with Illinois television stations, Obama made the rookie celebrity mistake of slipping away from his handlers to grab a cup of green tea at a Dunkina Donuts counter in the arena. Immediately descending on him were reporters from BET, NBC News, ABC News and various publications. Obama gave up on the tea, which he wanted to help soothe an overworked throat. Maintaining his composure, he answered questions for about five minutes before announcing that he had to use the restroom. He confided to Green that he wanted to use the portable restrooms outside because, aYou know, when I go into the regular restroom, all these people want to shake my hand, and thatas not the place I want to be shaking hands.a Yet when Obama neared the portable toilets with the media horde still at his heels, he turned plaintively to his pursuers: aCan yaall just give me one moment to use the Port-O-Let?a But the group kept moving apace, until Green threw out his arms, at last stopping the entourage. aGuys, guys, guys!a Green shouted. aCan you let him use the Porta Potti? Please! Thank you!a Soon, Gibbs appeared with Obamaas tea and whisked his boss away to practice the speech in private.

Obama had never used a teleprompter or spoken before an audience of that size before. Five thousand delegates were in attendance. So Obama practiced the speech several times during the week. Jim Cauley became convinced during these practice sessions that the speech would be a hit. The final time Obama rehea.r.s.ed it, Cauley noticed a DNC staff member with tears in her eyes. aEven that last try, though, Obama was only about eighty percent there,a another observer said. aHe didnat really nail it completely until he gave it before the crowd.a Gibbs had advised Obama that keynote addresses generally fell into two categoriesa"thematic and programmatic. Thematic speeches generally involved broad, sweeping ideas about how to strengthen the country. Programmatic speeches homed in on specific policy details and offered solutions to major problems. Obama knew immediately that he was shooting for a thematic approach. He had been thinking in broad terms about his overall message and how he believed the country was swerving down the wrong path. He loosely based the speech on two previous well-received keynote addresses from oratorically gifted Democrats: Mario Cuomoas 1984 address in San Francisco t.i.tled aA Tale of Two Citiesa and Ann Richardsas 1988 speech in Atlanta. Cuomo described his vision of a country led by Democrats who want to spread wealth to people of all socioeconomic cla.s.ses, races and ethnicities. He compared that vision with the way he perceived America evolving under Republican president Ronald Reagana"a society dividing into haves and have-nots based on wealth and education, a society being restructured by a social Darwinism in which the strong prevail over the weak. aWe must make the American people hear our tale of two cities,a Cuomo said. aWe must convince them that we can have one city, indivisible, shining for all its people.a Richards did much the same thing four years later, excoriating the Reagan administration and Republicans in general for a adivide and conquera strategy, pitting different interests and different geographic regions of the country against one another for political gain.

Obama, whose career path forced him to chase his fiction-writing muse into political composition, leaned on storytelling in his speeches. In the keynote address, he took his campaign rhetoric about a common humanity and blended it with the biography of Kerry, weaving all of this into a tight seventeen-minute speech. His campaign speeches in 2004 were a stew of general political prose, the sermonizing poetry he had experienced in the African-American church and his past readings, primarily of Martin Luther King Jr. He launched the keynote in the same fashion as his stump speeches, by introducing himself and his unique family ancestrya"mother from Kansas, father from Kenya. He wrapped it up by returning to that biography, saying that Americaas greatness lay in its unique ability to instill hope in aa skinny kid with a funny namea like him. In between, he concentrated on this basic notion of a unifying force in America, a hope in the American Dream; athe audacity of hope,a he called it. Obama took that phrase straight from a sermon by his pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright, who himself had plucked it from King. (Said King: aI have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality and freedom for their spirit. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.a) These were Obamaas best-received lines from his earlier campaigning. For example, this section is a direct pickup from his stump speeches: aIf there is a child on the South Side of Chicago who canat read, that matters to me, even if itas not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who canat pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if itas not my grandparent. If thereas an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It is that fundamental beliefa"it is that fundamental belief: I am my brotheras keeper. I am my sisteras keepera.a The final statement was a biblical reference that was generally a crescendo line with African-American crowds. Kerryas people, in fact, had edited that line out; but Gibbs, knowing its surefire popularity on the trail, made sure to restore it.

Obamaas first versions of his speech included much more of his own biography, but that eventually fell to the cutting-room floor to keep the speech less than twenty minutes. He also wrote sections on his definition of the American Dream and his belief in the exceptional nature of America that were edited out. In the end, the essence of his speech consisted of the lines and themes that worked on the campaign trail.

Obama and his team exercised nearly full editorial control over the speech. Kerryas staff did make one substantial change, however. After Obamaas riff about carving up the country into red states and blue states, he tied this color mosaic together by saying that all the country was apledging allegiance to the red, white and blue.a But Kerryas people said they might want to use that line in Kerryas speech at the end of the week. Obama was aincredulousa at this request. aOf all the lines in the speech, Barack was the proudest of that one,a Axelrod said. aBarack said, aThey are taking my line.a Literally, throughout the week he was saying that he did not know but that he may say it anyway. But then, when he went up there he didnat. He knew that they gave him a great opportunity, so a little thievery was a small thing.a In the end, Obama altered his line to apledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.a There was one notable difference between Obamaas speech and those he had patterned it after: Obama attacked the establishment in general rather than saving all his fury for the Republican Party. He talked of the aspin mastersa and anegative ad peddlersa who want to carve up the country for their own political gain.

ARRIVING AT OBAMAaS MESSY HOTEL ROOM BEFORE THE SPEECH, Axelrod and Gibbs realized that they had not considered an important aesthetic ingredient in that nightas success. How should Obama dress? The trim Obama generally looked crisply handsome and presentable in his suits, but how would he look onstage with the predominantly blue backdrop? Obama was wearing one of his dark suits and one of his lightly patterned ties. The suit was fine, but when Axelrod took a close look at the tie, they both felt he needed an upgrade. Obama defended his choice. He especially did not consider Axelrodas opinion of high value, since Axelrod with his penchant for sports attire was anything but a fashion plate. When Obama sought Mich.e.l.leas opinion, however, she agreed with the two men. So that was thata"the search for a new tie was on. Finally Axelrod spotted Gibbsas brand-new baby blue striped tie. This would do well. aBut this is my tie,a Gibbs protested. aI bought it specifically for tonight.a It would now be Obamaas tie.

Huddled with his small team behind the stage, Obama, who had been calm throughout the week, suddenly felt a tad nervous. The crowd was certainly juiced and primed for a big performance. In fact, the Democrats yearned for a big performance. Kerryas public uneasiness had not exactly lit a fire under the rank and file. The audience was hungering for someone with charisma, and the buzz around this young African-American lawmaker from the Midwest provided hope that perhaps someone could dazzle them this week. Despite his nerves, Obama maintained an extraordinary mental acuity, especially considering how far he had come in such a short timea"from third-place Senate candidate to hyped national keynote speaker. By his side was his volunteer campaign photographer, David Katz, the fresh-from-college young man who had by now snapped thousands of photos of Obama. Knowing that Katz was a talented golfer with a scratch handicap, Obama turned to the young man and said, aIam gonna go out there and sink this putt.a Later, Katz expressed wonderment that Obama could relate to him in such a personal way at such a psychologically intense moment. aThatas one of his amazing talents,a Katz said. aHere he was, about to deliver the keynote speech, and he had the presence of mind to connect with me at my level.a Obama did not fail to delight the crowd. He stumbled a bit in the opening lines, clipping his words on occasion. But after mentioning that his mother was from Kansas, the Kansas delegation erupted in a cheer, and one could see a jolt of energy rush through Obamaas body. He had made that special audience connection.

By the crescendo points in the speech, Obama had fallen into just a touch of a black preacheras cadencea"and his audience was simply enraptured. aThereas not a liberal America and a conservative Americaa"thereas the United States of America,a Obama said in a clear, resolute voice. aThereas not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian Americaa"thereas the United States of Americaa. We are one peoplea.a Democrats of all races and ages nodded their heads in agreement with his proclamations. Some were crying. Many shrieked and jumped from their seats. Axelrod and Gibbs had ventured onto the arena floor to gauge the speech from that perspective. As Obama wowed the crowd, journalist Jeff Greenfield spotted the two Obama aides a few rows behind him and mouthed to them: aThis is a fantastic speech!a Backstage were Green and Katz. As a black man, Green said he felt himself swelling with immense pride. He spotted the usually poker-faced Mich.e.l.le and noticed that she had tears glistening on her cheeks. A lump formed in Greenas throat and chills ran up his spine. aWhen I looked past the stage,a Green recalled later, aand saw how people reacted, when I saw people falling out, people crying, I thought to myself that I had never experienced anything like this, anything this powerful. You know, Iam not sure what this means, but I couldnat help but think, Is he the one? Could he really be the one we have been looking for?a When Obama finished, Mich.e.l.le bolted onto the stage in an unrehea.r.s.ed moment and patted her husband on the back. They waved to the fawning crowd as she guided him backstage. aWow!a exclaimed a news anchor on television. MSNBCas Chris Matthews gushed, aI was shivering, it was so good.a CNNas Wolf Blitzer observed that Obama aelectrified this crowd here.a Even former Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp called it a afabulous speecha on a Fox News program. Backstage, Obama slipped out of his fiery oratoras cloak and into the low-key, relaxed uniform he wears from his Hawaiian childhood. He flashed a self-satisfied smile at Green. aI guess it was a pretty good speech, huh?a Obama said.

The next day, as Obama and his entourage ascended on an escalator in the arena, a woman descending on the adjacent down escalator simply beamed upon encountering the Democratsa hottest new star. As the two pa.s.sed each other, she leaned over and said to Obama, aI just cannot wait until you are president.a

CHAPTER.

21.

Back to Illinois.

Theyare both totally freaked out by this.

a"A CAMPAIGN AIDE, DESCRIBING MICh.e.l.lE AND BARACK OBAMAaS REACTION TO THE OVERWHELMING CROWDS HE WAS DRAWING.

Arriving back in Illinois, Barack Obama was confronted with the reality that he still had an election to win. With Jack Ryan dismissed and the Republican Party foundering, however, it was now nearly August and Obama still had no Republican challenger. On paper, that looked heaven-sent. But this was uncharted terrain. How do you run a campaign when you donat know who your foe is? So Obama kept pushing his staff forward, and his staff kept pushing him. aJimmy, I donat want to hear any of this awe donat have an opponenta stuff,a Obama told his campaign manager, Jim Cauley. aWe have to keep running hard.a To deaden any suspicion that the heady keynote experience might go to his head and shift his priorities away from the voters of Illinois, his staff had planned a statewide campaign tour to begin the weekend after he returned home. Obama knew his Boston week would be crazy, and he preferred a week of mild campaigning. But his staff had other ideas. They had been listening, perhaps a little too closely, to Obamaas preaching about not easing up on the throttle. Still running on empty physically after Boston, Obama launched a sixteen-hundred-mile blitz of the state. The Obama caravan visited thirty-nine counties and thirty-nine cities in just five daysa"a whopping eight campaign stops a day. Obama wanted to reconnect with his family after the hectic convention, so his staff rented a recreational vehicle so he could pile in Mich.e.l.le and his daughters to accompany him along the trail. But with eight events per day, and a couple of hoursa drive between some of these, it was hard to see where his family fit into the frenetic mix. aThis was supposed to be a leisurely trip in an RV with my family. Instead, itas turned into the Bataan Death March,a Obama lamented as the RV pushed away from Chicago. aI mean, I donat want to dissuade my staff from being aggressive. So itas this delicate balance that I am still trying to figure outa. But weave got a campaign to run and we have to get back to reality.a Still, reality had changed unalterably for Obama. His modest fame was expanding into celebrity beyond Illinois and the Washington Beltway. After his roundly hailed keynote speech, he was fast becoming one of the hottest commodities in the Democratic Party nationwide. The publisher of Dreams from My Father ran off eighty-five thousand new copies and the book began climbing the bestseller lists. When I talked to Obama as the tour launched, it was obvious that he was ill at ease with this newfound star status. He maintained, quite convincingly, that he just wanted to win the Illinois race and concentrate on being a successful U.S. senator. aI donat intend to be on Politically Incorrect anytime soon to talk about whatever issues happen to be in front of the newspapers,a he said. aPart of my job is to strike a balance between doing a good job as a legislator, being an effective advocate for voters and still being a decent husband and father. Thatas a pretty full plate right there.a This thinking might help him focus on the tasks at hand, I thought, but it surely seemed naive. The genie was sprung from the bottle, and there was no way to put it back in. Here was this interesting young star senator headed toward the Washington beast. Expectations would be placed on him from all quartersa"the black community, the liberals, the centrists, the party fund-raisers, the media, the campaign contributors, the aides (like Robert Gibbs) who harbored their own lofty ambitions and saw Obama as the conduit to fulfill them. If Julian Green needed five Baracks that day in Boston, his campaign would now need at least that many every day. aIn just a few short months, Barack has been shot out of a cannon twice,a David Axelrod observed.

The statewide campaign swing was further evidence of the intensity of Obamaas overnight celebrity. The Obama fever that swept through Boston hit the same scorching temperature back in Illinois. Everywhere Obama went, in every little quaint town square where he had planned a rally, he was greeted by thick, energized crowds. Publicly, he tried to downplay the breathless attention by talking about his goal at handa"winning the Senate race. Whether standing center stage in a crowded college theater or on the bed of a bronze Chevrolet S10 pickup truck parked in a dirt lot next to a town hall, the ever-disciplined Obama stuck to his message. He told rally after rally that, in his keynote address, he was trying to do nothing more than echo the voices of Illinois residents. More than anything, he said, he sought to bring a more conciliatory approach to Americaas bitterly partisan political culture. aApparently, the speech turned out okay Tuesday,a he said with an understated grin to a group of about five hundred in a scenic park in Kewanee. aBut the reason I was there was because of you, the voters of Illinois. People didnat care that I was from a different town or that I was a different color.a With reporters, he endeavored to remain religious to the campaign script of personal humility and public service. aThis is all so, well, interesting. But itas all so ephemeral,a Obama said between campaign stops in DeKalb and Marengo. aI donat know how this plays out, but there is definitely a novelty aspect to it all. The novelty wears off, and it canat stay white-hot like it is right now.a There was also a part of Obama, whose father abandoned him as a child and whose mother traveled to faraway continents and left him with his grandparents, that clearly fed off the public adulation. Nothing nourished him more than connecting emotionally and intellectually with an audience. In these crowds of G.o.d-fearing heartland Americans, he would typically end his stump speeches with a reference to the Almightya"aG.o.d bless you all.a But in concluding his first tour speech, as the crowd roared its affirmation, Obama instead blurted out, aI love you all! Love ya!a He then strutted offstage to the strains of booming country music very much befitting the star image that had been thrust upon him. And it wasnat just Obama who was changing. His audience was too. Suddenly their appet.i.te for anything about Obama seemed insatiable. His humorous opening lines about his name being misconstrued as aYo mamaa or aAlabamaa were now greeted not with mild chuckles but with howls of laughter. aI vote for people, and not for political reasons, and this man inspires me,a gushed David Bramson, a rough-hewn sixty-seven-year-old truck driver from Marengo. Bramson said he would vote again for George W. Bush for presidenta"and the liberal Obama. aHe can really get your juices flowing. This is the first Democrat Iave seen who doesnat polarize the public,a he said. aThis guy is real. The others are phony.a In Pekin, a woman held aloft a sign: aIf you have a dream, vote for Obama.a ACCOMPANYING OBAMA FOR SEVERAL DAYS OF THE TRIP WAS THE senior senator from Illinois, Richard Durbin, who had introduced Obama to the Boston crowd before the keynote address. Durbin was the Energizer Bunny of stump politicians. A liberal Democrat who was one of the few senators to vote against giving President Bush the authority to invade Iraq, Durbin had been simply indefatigable on the campaign trail in the course of his career. aIave learned a lot just watching d.i.c.k,a Obama said. aHe is solid.a Durbinas tireless, type A nature is perhaps necessary. Short of stature, with slightly graying hair trimmed in a traditional style, Durbin conveys an almost anti-celebrity persona. He can remind you of the smiling next-door neighbor in khaki pants and b.u.t.ton-down checkered shirt, always ready with a friendly wave when you spot him mowing the lawn. His physical appearance was so Everyman-like and his personality so avuncular that he could walk through downtown Chicago in rush hour and hardly be recognized by a single const.i.tuent. Before a fund-raiser in Springfield during the tour, Obama was busy with phone calls and told Durbin that he would meet him at the event. Durbin replied that he would rather just wait. aI canat go there without you,a Durbin explained. an.o.body will have any clue who I am unless I walk in next to you.a Yet despite his relative anonymity in Illinois, in Washington, Durbin was considered one of the most serious members of the Senate, and he had earned great respect from his colleagues in the Capitol. When Democrats captured control of the Senate in 2006, Durbin was elected majority whip, making him the second-ranking Democrat on the Hill.

With their contrasting personal styles, Durbin and Obama had worked up something of a two-man comedy routine on this trip, with Obama playing the straight man to Durbinas boisterous standup delivery. Durbin opened each event by telling the less-than-true story that he had prepared this fantastic speech for the Boston audience, but (slight pause) he had given it to Obama instead. aI couldnat be mad,a Durbin would say with a wide grin, abecause didnat he do a great job with it, folks?!a Privately, Durbin allowed that this joke was older than he was, but it nevertheless was surefire in drawing a laugh. And morning, noon and night, at event after event, Durbin would hit his line perfectly each time. Meanwhile, Obama, with arms folded in his cool, detached posture, would stand next to him and push out a smile, a smile that became more fatigued and more forced on each subsequent telling, as each day pa.s.sed.

Obama, still a policy wonk at heart, mixed serious politics into his addresses on this trip. He spoke about providing everyday people with a greater voice in Washington and breaking down partisan bickering. He promised to channel the concerns of Illinois residents into sound policy. He a.s.sured voters that he was running for their sake, not his own. aThose little small miracles that all of you pull off every daya"that is what this campaign is all about,a he said. Surprisingly, Obama also took a decidedly antia"Iraq War stance. This could have been tricky in this part of the world, which was red state country, but he pulled it off in his reasonable tone. aWhen we send our men off to war, we need to make sure we are sending them off to the right war,a he told audiences, who reacted enthusiastically.

As the days wore on, miraculously, the crowds seemed to grow even bigger. And Obamaas young staff was in no way prepared or equipped to handle them. Outside an aluminum-sided caf in Lincoln, Obama stepped from his SUV and was swallowed up by a sea of several hundred admirers, each wanting to shake his hand or give him a hug or take a photo. Mike Daly, Durbinas chief Illinois aide and a veteran campaigner, grew irritated and impatient with this poorly planned scenario. aWeave lost control,a he said in frustration, as Obama disappeared amid the crowd. aSomeone is going to have to go in and fish him out.a Sweating and fatigued, Daly stepped out of the pack of humanity and mused about the lasting effect this idol worship could have on Obama. aI think he is grounded internally, but look at this. How can you not let all of this go to your head?a he asked.

After a couple of days of fighting the crowds, Obama was starting to grow more weary of the speeches and the peoplea"especially all the people. As in Boston, everyone wanted a piece of him, sometimes literally. He complained to aides that some women would literally grab his b.u.t.tocks and physically push up against him. Each event ran well over its time because he would have to sign autographs and shake hands with hundreds of adoring fans, and this extra time had not been built into the schedule. The RV, meanwhile, had been practically discarded as a means of travel because it could not go fast enough on the cornfield-lined country roads to make up the lost time. Instead, aides corralled Sasha and Malia into the RV in the morning and took the children to theme and water parks for the day, reuniting them with their parents at the hotels in the evenings. Obama, however, was. .h.i.tting fund-raisers and rallies well into the night hours. So much for the family trip. aWhen are we going to see our children again?a Obama asked Mich.e.l.le inside the SUV one morning. aIam not sure,a she replied. A few moments later, Obama told his driver that he wanted to stop and pick up a New York Times. aWhy do you want that?a Mich.e.l.le asked. aWhatas in there about you?a Obama seemed rankled by the question. aNothing that I know of,a he said. aYou know that I always read the Sunday Times.a aOh yeah,a she replied. aI guess Iave just lost all perspective.a In these private settings, as the exhausting trip progressed, Obama was not always the relaxed, smooth politician from days and weeks earlier. His mercurial moments bubbled up again. He had brought Mich.e.l.le and his daughters out on the road, but he was seeing little of them. And not only that: With the sheer number of people he had to greet, the worshipping crowds became less ego gratifying and more of a burden. There was no real physical separation between him and the crowds. Finally, on the third day, at a high school in Clinton, a police officer threw one of Obamaas young traveling aides a roll of police line tape and told him, aKeep it and use it, son.a After that, the aides started cordoning off the crowds to give Obama some breathing room. aWeave finally kind of figured out that he is happier when we can keep some of these people the h.e.l.l away from him,a one aide said. Obama, feeling remorseful about this, apologized to audiences that he could not stay longer, sign autographs and meet each one of them.

Obama, at this juncture, had no security presence around him. His driver was a former police officer, but these crowds were too big for one man and a few twenty-somethings to handle. Moreover, Obamaas following now came with an emotional element that could possibly draw out the wrong emotion. In Boston, I had noticed that Obama had no security, despite some odd-looking characters who turned out to see him in the days after the speech. So during an interview on the Illinois trip, I asked him and Mich.e.l.le about the lack of protection. Mich.e.l.le jumped at the question, saying that she had been talking to the campaign staff about adding security personnel, but they had been resistant because they did not want to make it appear that Obama feared his future const.i.tuents. Being asked the question by a reporter legitimized her worry, and she looked over at Gibbs in the SUV. aThis is not something that Barack even needs to think about,a she said. aI understand you have to achieve a balance between looking out for his safety and not looking like he is afraid of the community he is serving. But we have to find that balance.a That night, at a packed outdoor fund-raiser, I told one of Obamaas aides about Mich.e.l.leas reaction and asked if I had gauged things correctly. aTheyare both totally freaked out by this,a he said.

The stress of the trip, and the madness around it, was showing on the ever-affable Mich.e.l.le. At some moments on the trip, the tension between Mich.e.l.le and her husband was palpable. No one is more devoted to Obama than his wife, and no one will race to his defense as ardently and as quickly as she will. But her husbandas overnight fame was causing her some concern. One morning, as I waited to interview her in the SUV, she dropped a political cartoon into my lap. The artist had sketched a smiling Democratic woman holding up a sign that read: aDated Dean, Married Kerry, l.u.s.t for Obama.a Mich.e.l.le looked at me and said, aThis is what I have to contend with.a Over time, Obama would smooth over these issues with his wife. This feeling was transitory, but at that moment it was real.

As the caravan made its way back to Chicago on Day Six of the Death March, nearly everyone involved in the tour was ready for its end. It had been a fascinating yet grueling adventure. But no one was more primed for its conclusion than Obama himself. After giving his final speech and posing for a photo with the youthful staff members who a.s.sisted him on the excursion, he called over the lead organizer of the trip, a law student named Jeremiah Posedel. The two were standing in the middle of a blocked-off street in a small town just south of the Chicago region. Obama placed his hands on Posedelas shoulders and then fixed a serious gaze directly into the young manas eyes. aYou did a great job and I am so appreciative of all the work youave done,a Obama told him. aBut donat ever f.u.c.king do that to me again.a WITH CHICAGO LOCKED DOWN, OBAMA WOULD TAKE MORE OF these extended campaign trips to solidify downstate Democrats and try to convert Republican voters to his cause. But these trips would cause some anguish for Obama as he sought to keep his biggest vicea"cigarette smokinga"hidden from public view. The whole campaign caravan would have to pull over at a gas station, where Obama would disappear into the restroom, presumably to catch a smoke. aItas embarra.s.sing,a Obama said. aWe pull over and eight guys jump out of cars just so I can use the restroom.a This could place his campaign staff in the awkward position of having to guard their employeras secret nicotine addiction.

Late at night, during one tour of the state, I was riding shotgun in a car trailing Obamaas black SUV amid the campaign caravan. At the wheel of our small sedan was press aide Tommy Vietor, a young tousle-haired East Coast native who joined Obama from the presidential campaign of North Carolina senator John Edwards after Edwards folded. Vietor was a smart, eager, computer-geek type who feared one thing: s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up. He sensed that if he played his cards right, he could find a seat on Obamaas rising rocket ship for a long time to come. Specifically, he had his sights set on being Gibbsas chief communications deputy. So Vietor could ill afford to let something outside the script slip to a reporter.

After a long day on the trail, it was nearing midnight and we were headed to a hotel that had been inexplicably booked a long two hoursa drive from the final event. As we motored along the dark, flat country roads of Illinois, I spied a small orange-lighted object fly from the pa.s.senger window of Obamaas SUV and smack into the road ahead of us, briefly bouncing along the pavement until it disappeared beneath our car. Vietor, understanding the magnitude of Obamaas well-kept secret and the potential consequences of its revelation to a reporter, immediately turned his head my way to see if I had noticed what was obviously a cigarette b.u.t.t discarded by Obama. But Vietor and I both said nothing. Only half-awake and tired, I lacked the energy to mention what I had seen and open a conversation about it. Vietor was obviously hoping I hadnat spotted the cigarette and kept his mouth shut.

Several minutes later, however, out flew another orange cigarette b.u.t.t, which elicited the same reaction from Vietora"a quick worried glance in my direction. After another several minutes, out popped another. Again Vietor turned my way, looking ever more worried as Obama flicked each cigarette from the SUV. aYou know, Tommy, Iave known for a long time that Barack smokes,a I said. aYou have?a Vietor asked. aYes,a I responded, asince early in the primary when I got into his SUV and it smelled like a smoky bar on Friday night.a aWhew!a he said. aSo long as Barack knows I didnat fink on him.a Throughout the summer, Obama was locked into a daily schedule that restricted press access, but on these many trips, Obama and I occasionally engaged in candid conversation. During a campaign stop in Springfield, he revealed his occasionally thin skin in one of these chats. He asked why I had been ataking all these jabsa at him in my Tribune stories. I was perplexed by what he meant. I thought my coverage had been balanced. But Obama referred to a line from a story that had run a couple of months earlier. Obviously, the line had been eating at him. I had written that while he was a talented orator, his debate skills might be suspect. I said that he had a tendency to be averbosea in press interviews, occasionally meandering off his message and waxing philosophical about other policy views. He was also not a good asound bitea politiciana"not the type who could deliver a quick one-line punch to the gut of an opponent. And the winner of a debate is often the candidate who delivers the most memorable punch. This was mild criticism at best, but Obama obviously was not accustomed to public criticism. A couple of years later, in his book The Audacity of Hope, he conceded the verbosity, anti-sound-bite point. He wrote that his elongated musings had probably won him some points with political reporters, however, whom he dubbed a aliterary cla.s.s.a AS OBAMA SET ILLINOIS ON FIRE THAT SUMMER, THE REPUBLICAN Party waged a bitter internal battle about who should replace Ryan on the ballot. Moderates and conservatives had been bickering for years about the direction of the party, and this battle was perhaps the ugliest public incarnation of that disagreement. Various potential candidatesa names floated. Even Mike Ditka, the former Chicago Bears head coach, who was a hometown hero, toyed momentarily with the idea of challenging Obama. In early August, the moderates finally succ.u.mbed to the partyas vocal right wing and allowed the GOPas central committee to bring in conservative firebrand Alan Keyes as its candidate. Keyes, who was then living in Maryland, was a former talk show host who quixotically ran twice for president. A rare African-American conservative, Keyes was best known for his rousing speaking style and his often inflammatory rhetoric, which was steeped in his deeply Christian moral philosophy. His style was scholarly, but extremely controversial, even within the Christian Right. But he was fiery enough and not the least bit reticent about virulently attacking his opponent, whoever he might be. One GOP legislator told Obama that Republicans drafted Keyes to muddy up Obamaas image, to aknock the haloa off the Democratas head. In the end, Keyes would do nothing of the sort.

My first encounter with Keyes came in Chicagoas annual Bud Billiken Parade, which runs through the African-American community on the cityas South Side. The Billiken parade is touted as the largest African-American parade in the country, running for several miles along Martin Luther King Drive. By now, Obama was a prideful symbol among Chicagoas blacks. And on this beautifully sunny afternoon, Obama and Mich.e.l.le were the king and queen of the parade. Thousands of parade-goers hoisted blue-and-white Obama signs, wore Obama stickers and shrieked in pure joy as his float pa.s.sed by. They serenaded the Hyde Park Democrat with chants of aO-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!a Obama drew such a pa.s.sionate outpouring from the crowd that even he and his aides were overwhelmed. aAt one point, I thought Barack was going to rise up over the people and start saying, aMy children, my children, I have come to free you,aa joked his driver and bodyguard, Mike Signator. aIt was just incredible.a Keyes, however, was relegated to the back of the pack, proceeding by foot. And he was anything but welcomed by the crowd. As Keyes shook hands and walked along the parade route, attendees taunted, booed and hissed. One man briefly grabbed his arm and warned him, aTake your a.s.s back to Maryland.a As Keyes tried to shake hands between 47th and 48th Streets, a wild-eyed woman ran up to him, lifted an Obama sign above her head and screamed repeatedly into Keyesas face: aObama for president! Obama for president!a If Keyes, as a black man, had any thoughts of stealing away some black votes from Obama, he could now forget it. He would be lucky to get out of this angry stew without injury.

Keyesas bombastic nature was immediately evident. At the parade, I pulled him aside for an interview. In answering my first question, Keyes, who was wearing a thick gold crucifix around his neck, took dead aim at Obama. He charged that Obama was indirectly supporting the agenocidea of African Americans. Surprised, I asked, aHow is he doing that?a Keyes answered emphatically that Obamaas endors.e.m.e.nt of a womanas legal right to an abortion was killing athousands of black babiesa every year. aWeare the first people who have ever been pushed into genocide before our babies are born,a Keyes said. aSo the people who are supporting that position are actually supporting the systematic extermination of black America.a Through the next several months, Keyesas antiabortion rhetoric became no less incendiary. At one point he stated that if Jesus could vote in Illinois, he would cast a ballot against Obama because aBarack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved.a Again Keyes referred to Obamaas stance in favor of abortion rights.

Keyes was a gifted orator himself, able to deliver a political sermon that could convince his true believers that they were engaged in a battle of good versus evil. He would raise a fist, wag a finger and proselytize like a preacher spreading the tenets of Christianity to the chosen followers.

Nevertheless, the broad populace was unimpressed. Polling showed that Obama was destroying Keyes throughout the state. Still, as with Rickey Hendon in the state legislature, there was something about Keyes that got under Obamaas skin. Running across Keyes at a parade on the North Side of the city one weekend, Obama rushed over and tried to talk to him. Obama is someone who loathes conflict, and he thought that he could have a reasonable discussion with this man who had been hurling hateful invective at him. aBarack thinks he can win over anyone,a Jim Cauley observed. aHe thinks he can go into a roomful of skinheads and come out with all their votes.a Before long, Obama and Keyes were engaged in a verbal tussle that was heightened when Obama, trying to calm the situation, put his hand on Keyesas shoulder. The next dayas newspapers would feature photos of the altercation, prompting Axelrod to give Obama some worthwhile advice: aYou know, Barack, you canat hug a porcupine without getting p.r.i.c.ked.a Obama explained in The Audacity of Hope that Keyesas attacks on Obamaas Christianity and Keyesas readings of Scripture aput me on the defensive.a aWhat could I say? That a literal reading of the Bible was folly?a Obama wrote. aI answered with the usual liberal response in such debatesa"that we live in a pluralistic society, that I canat impose my religious views on another, that I was running to be the U.S. Senator from Illinois and not the minister of Illinois. But even as I answered, I was mindful of Mr. Keyesas implicit accusationa"that I remain steeped in doubt, that my faith was adulterated, that I was not a true Christian.a The rest of the way, Obama kept his head in the game and his hands off the porcupine. That November, in perhaps the most anticlimactic moment of Obamaas political ascension, he won the general election by the largest margin of victory in the history of Senate races in Illinois, defeating Keyes by a final tally of 70 percent to 29 percent.

ODDLY ENOUGH, THE FINAL CELEBRATION PARTY FOR OBAMAaS election victory was one of the less compelling moments of the campaign. With the Keyes debacle, Obamaas success was all but a.s.sured, and most eyes that evening were on the presidential contest between John Kerry and President Bush. When Kerry lost, there was a palpable deflation among Obamaas Democratic partygoers. Axelrod, in a moment of idealism, worried about disillusionment among the young people who had volunteered to work on behalf of Kerry and the Democrats. aWe canat lose them, but how do we keep them engaged after this?a Axelrod asked. When I looked at Obama and suggested that these young asave-the-worlda types, in the description of Jim Cauley, might gravitate toward the Democratsa newest rising star, Axelrod waved a hand. It was too early to think in those terms, he insisted.

Obamaas performance on election night was less than stellar, at times revealing his tendency to rebel against the trappings that accompany his career success. As the election results rolled in, his staff had a.s.sembled the candidate with Mich.e.l.le, Sasha and Malia in an upper-level hotel suite for a series of five-minute photo opportunities. Obama and his family sat on a light-colored couch with a widescreen TV in the background. Obama flashed his toothy smile throughout the photo sessions and his daughters delighted in the attention for a few minutes before growing bored and asking their parents when the pictures would be over. In between the processions of newspaper and television photographers, Obama squirmed in his seat and appeared more than a little uncomfortable in the contrived atmosphere. Just as when forcing a smile at d.i.c.k Durbinas joke again and again, Obama did not suffer well some of the showy, artificial moments of being a politician. aHe hates this phony s.h.i.t,a Vietor said as we watched him hug his daughters and smile for the cameras.

Also dampening enthusiasm that evening was Obamaas speaking performance. He was so tired from the final frenetic leg of campaigning that his victory speech was rather flat. He had no time to compose anything new, leading him to wander languidly among various familiar anecdotes and talk too long. But his biggest flub was thanking everyone up front rather than after the speech. This led to some of the Chicago television stations shifting away from his speech midstream. But that was of little concern to his advisers. Obama had won the election, and this was all superfluous to that outcome.

Before the election, Axelrod hypothesized that a Kerry victory would be a G.o.dsend to Obama because the center of power for Democrats would shift to the White House, lifting the hot glare of the Washington media off Obama, who, after all, would be just an incoming freshman low in seniority. This, in theory, would have allowed Obama to settle into his new job in relative peace. Indeed, Axelrod and Gibbs were already hard at work trying to structure the next phase of Obamaas career. In Chicago, political insiders marveled at how artfully Axelrod and Obamaas braintrust had managed his campaign amid the truly bizarre circ.u.mstances of the racea"circ.u.mstances that, in the end, worked in Obamaas favor. aIt was a thing of beauty to watch from the outside, like watching a play that David had written, with all the acts progressing into one another perfectly,a a Chicago political consultant said with a sense of deep admiration for Axelrod.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the campaign script was Obamaas perpetual clean slate through the race. With his main rivals essentially doing themselves in, Obama was never forced to launch a nasty public attack of any sort. And he never had a major negative attack launched at him. This played perfectly into his mantra of a anew kind of politicsa in which combatants can do political battle with civility. But it also raised questions about Obamaas toughness: How would he withstand an attack in a future election? I wondered this myselfa"after all, he seemed fairly sensitive about my mild observation that his intellectual verbosity would be a negative as a debater. He also seemed far too sensitive to the wild attacks of Keyes. aI canat believe how this guy is trash-talking me,a he once told Mich.e.l.le.

Indeed, the talk of the election night party was what the future held for the new senator. Several aides predicted a difficult transition to Washington. aHe is the smartest man I have ever met, but I think his first year is going to be really hard,a said Amanda Fuchs, his campaign policy director. aHe is going to need to learn to delegate more because there will be plenty of smart people around him. He is going to have to learn that he canat do everything himself, especially all his policy. And he is going to learn that Republicans in D.C. are not going to work with him in the same way they did in Springfield, no matter how much he reaches out to them.a The aspect of Obamaas life that would be easier was his finances. Obama had leveraged his star power and the blazing sales of his first memoir into a lucrative new book deal, which he signed in December 2004. He netted an advance of nearly two million dollars to write three books, including a childrenas book with Mich.e.l.le. Upon hearing of the sum of money he would reap, Mich.e.l.le had to admit that her earlier judgment had been wrong. Obamaas plan for success, which Mich.e.l.le had likened to so much pie in the sky, had miraculously worked. Her husband had won a Senate seat and now would write a book that would stabilize his family financially for his lifetime. He had climbed the beanstalk and had indeed descended with the golden egg. aI canat believe you pulled this off,a Mich.e.l.le told him. For a man who never sought excessive wealth, Obama now had it. aI am not looking for money,a he had told Jim Cauley. aAll Iam looking for is a decent house and the ability to send my little girls to whatever school I want.a Those goals were now accomplished.

CHAPTER.

22.

The Senator.

There are probably folks on the left who want me to be Paul Wellstone. And I love Paul Wellstone, but Iam not Paul Wellstone. I donat agree with everything Paul said. And one of the things you come into office and everybodyas projectinga"particularly the way I came ina"everybodyas projecting their own views onto you.

a"BARACK OBAMA.

Barack Obamaas inauguration week in January 2005 appeared to be a time of joy for him and his family, although the pressures of his celebrity were not to abate. During his first news conference in Washington, a reporter asked earnestly, aWhat is your place in history?a But most of the week was about enjoying the spectacle of the moment.

After taking the oath of office, Obama, Mich.e.l.le and the two girls strolled across the Capitol grounds to the Library of Congress, where he would greet a party of well-wishers from both Illinois and Washington. Taking the first steps out of the Capitol, Obama and Mich.e.l.le clasped hands. aCongratulations, Mr. Senator,a Mich.e.l.le said with a soft kiss. aCongratulations, Madame Senator,a Obama responded with a warm smile. With a handful of journalists trailing along to capture the scene, six-year-old Malia looked up at her father and asked, aDaddy, are you going to be president?a It was such an innocent question, but Obama scanned the reporters in his midst and cautiously withheld an answer. Picking up on the cue was Jeff Zeleny, then a Washington bureau reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Zeleny arched an eyebrow. aWell, Senator, arenat you going to answer?a Zeleny asked. Obama again ignored the question. Back in Obamaas transitional Senate office, Robert Gibbs received word of Maliaas query and made sure to disseminate it to all reporters who might not have heard the potentially clairvoyant anecdote: Obamaas little daughter had asked if he was going to be president!

As Obama reached the Library of Congress, his party guests were waiting in line to gain entrance. People had come from across Illinois and around Washington to fete Obama. His sister Maya and her husband had traveled from Hawaii. Marty Nesbitt and Valerie Jarrett had come from Chicago, along with an a.s.sortment of others. Obama ran up to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who enveloped Obamaas thin frame in a bear hug. Obama had lost nearly ten pounds on the campaign trail that year. aIam not a toy senator. Iam not a play senator!a Obama said. aIam a real senator now!a Requests for photographs of the real senator came from all around, and he obliged as many as he could. Jackson, always deft when finding a camera to point his way, hoisted a smiling three-year-old Sasha onto a concrete pillar about four feet tall and posed for photographs with his arm around the bright-eyed girl. After the photo was snapped, Jackson stepped away, leaving Sasha standing atop the concrete pillar by herself. Obama saw his three-year-old daughter stranded on the pillar and rushed over to rescue her. He shot a disapproving glance at Jackson, who was oblivious to Obamaas glare and his own lapse in judgment about the little girlas safety.

Inside, amid the party of several hundred fund-raisers and Obama stalwarts, the senator a.s.sured his audience that his mission to create a fairer, more just America had only begun. aWe are bound at the hip,a he said. aWe are going to be working hard to make sure that every child gets a decent shot at life and to make sure that every senior citizen is cared for, that the diversity of this country is appreciated and to make sure that we create the kind of nation that these children and your children and your grandchildren deserve. I promise you that this is not the end of the road.a The question was, where did that road now lead?

AS A STAR ATTRACTION IN WAS

Prev List Next