WP,pg1: Obama Rises in New Era Of Black Politicians: Most Have Similar Résumés, Ideology

[DeepModem Mom]

Obama Rises in New Era Of Black Politicians
Most Have Similar Résumés, Ideology
By Alec MacGillis and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 28, 2007; Page A01

...."To some extent, (Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick) has laid the groundwork for Obama and the way he campaigns," said Dan Payne, a Boston-based Democratic strategist who briefly advised Patrick.

Although Obama (Ill.) has forged a path as the first African American with a serious chance of becoming president, his rise coincides with the emergence of a whole cohort of black politicians who share similar résumés and ideology. Raised in the post-civil rights era, they attended elite schools, built coalitions of white and black supporters, and cast themselves as agents of change, even if they were running to succeed other African Americans.

Their experiences, in turn, inform Obama's prospects in the months ahead.

In winning election as the first African American governor in Massachusetts, Patrick showed the appeal that a candidate with his background and message has for white New England liberals -- a potentially good omen for Obama in the New Hampshire primary.

But the experience of another black politician with a similar background -- Newark mayor Cory Booker, a Yale Law School graduate and a Rhodes Scholar whose relations with his African American constituents have been at times difficult -- gives a hint of the challenge that Obama faces in wresting black support from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

While the cohort is loosely defined, these leaders were born after 1950 and played little, if any, role in the civil rights movement that defined many senior members of Congress, such as Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), as well as Jesse Jackson, former D.C. mayor Marion Barry and many others....'There's a huge generational moment in the country where people are looking for the next generation to take its rightful role . . . and we represent the next generation to take some responsibility," Patrick said in an interview....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072702455.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR