Portrait of the Politician as a Young Man on the Make
By Kirk Tofte on July 18, 2008 at 8:36 AM in Allison Davis, Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Barack Obama, Chicago politics, New Yorker, Qualifications, Tony Rezko, William Ayers
The recent article in the New Yorker about Barack Obama’s rise in Chicago politics has been overshadowed, of course, by the controversy surrounding the satirical cover illustration of the same issue. This is unfortunate in that the piece has much good information about Obama’s past. Although it is still far too fawning with respect to its analysis of his political career, the article does fill in some blanks about his checkered past.
For example, the overriding theme of the piece is Obama’s unbridled ambition. Early during his brief, three year tenure as a community organizer–whatever THAT job entailed—Obama openly discussed his long-term and very, very large political ambitions with even his newest acquaintances.
After connecting up with “king makers” like his employer, Allison Davis, and Annenberg Challenge associate, William Ayers, Obama found an opening when the Illinois state Senator from his neighborhood, Alice Palmer, decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Ironically, the seat Palmer sought was open due to recently disclosed past corruption on the part of the person that had previously held it and she was beaten in the Democratic primary to fill the seat by (of all people) Jesse Jackson’s son.
When Palmer subsequently sought to retain her Illinois state Senate seat, she was shutout by the Obama forces. A great deal of the funding for Obama’s run came from political bag men like Tony Rezko.
But once Obama was elected to the Illinois senate and began to serve in Springfield, he became bored. Two years later Obama challenged another black incumbent (the former Black Panther—Bobby Rush) for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Obama was soundly defeated in this race. But he immediately began to work to have his state Senate district redrawn so that the could represent elements of both Chicago’s Southside and areas that would connect him to big money contributors from the city’s Gold Coast further north. Even in defeat, Obama was planning his next big initiative—a run for a U.S. Senate seat.
But Obama wasn’t in the U.S. Senate for even two years before he announced his decision to run for president. America’s only hope if Obama wins the presidency is that the victory will launch a run on his part for the office of United Nations Secretary-General within just a few months of his taking the oath of office as president.






















