At State Level, Obama Proved to be Pragmatic and Shrewd

[illinoisprogressive]

There was something improbable about the new guy from Chicago via Honolulu and Jakarta, Indonesia, the one with the Harvard law degree and the job teaching constitutional law, turning up here in January 1997 among the housewives, ex-mayors and occasional soybean farmer serving in the State Senate.

The new senator, Barack Obama, was a progressive Democrat in a time of tight Republican control. He was a former community organizer in a place where power is famously held by a tight few. He was a neophyte promising reform in a culture that a University of Illinois political studies professor describes as “really tough and, frankly, still quite corrupt.”

“One of my first comments to Barack was, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ ” said Denny Jacobs, a former senator and self-described “backroom politician, not one of those do-gooders that stands up front and says we got to make changes.”

Senator Obama’s answer? “He looked at me sort of strange.”

Mr. Obama did not bring revolution to Springfield in his eight years in the Senate, the longest chapter in his short public life. But he turned out to be practical and shrewd, a politician capable of playing hardball to win election (he squeezed every opponent out of his first race), a legislator with a sharp eye for an opportunity, a strategist willing to compromise to accomplish things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/us/politics/30obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. There is no doubt that Obama is capable of doing a great job as President

It's going to be a bitter political fight getting there tho.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. so many underestimate him. he is quite savvy.

[Grandrose]

3. K&R

Another great article!:thumbsup: :kick: