"Obama to Attend Selma March Anniversary" (with audio)

NPR (with audio, 7:52):

Morning Edition, February 28, 2007 · This weekend, civil rights leaders will commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday — the day in 1965 when civil rights marchers were beaten in Selma, Ala.

The speakers at the solemn occasion in Selma will include two Democratic presidential hopefuls — Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

Obama was just 4 years old when the marchers were attacked. This weekend, he'll be speaking at the invitation of one of the men who was beaten — Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).

"John Lewis is a dear friend and a hero of mine," Obama says. "It is something that I'd always wanted to do."

At his Capitol Hill office this week, Obama spoke with Steve Inskeep about his upcoming trip to Selma and his experiences as an African American presidential candidate:

Do you try to talk in the same way to a black audience as a white audience?

I think that the themes are consistent. It think that there's a certain black idiom that it's hard not to slip into when you're talking to a black audience because of the audience response. It's the classic call and response. Anybody who's spent time in a black church knows what I mean. And so you get a little looser; it becomes a little more like jazz and a little less like a set score.

What about in questions of substance or what you emphasize [in a speech]?

Typically that doesn't change. Whatever the audience, I am typically talking about America's capacity to transform itself — our ability to change and make this a more just and equal nation — despite what look like daunting odds.

Do you feel that you have to prove yourself to black leaders or civil rights leaders?

You know, I really don't. I think it's instructive to look at how I ran my U.S. Senate campaign... I think that the African American community is more sophisticated than I think the pundits sometimes give them credit for. The notion that right now I'm not dominating the black vote in the polls makes perfect sense because I've only been on the national scene for a certain number of years. And people don't yet know what my track record is.

Will you need to dominate [the black] vote in order to win?

I will be speaking to themes that are important to that community, but I don't expect to get monolithic African American vote... I think we have some strong candidates in the field and it would be presumptuous of me to assume that people would vote for me simply because of my race.

Our correspondent, Juan Williams, recently interviewed a number of black leaders about you. One of them was Bobby Rush, the congressman who defeated you one time.

He did more than just defeat me. He spanked me.

Well, this may count as another spanking — I don't know — I'll just read you this quote. [Rush] said, referring to you:

"I'm a race politician and he's not. I don't compromise. I don't step back. I don't try to deny. I'm proud to be an African American."

What does that make you think of when you hear a quote like that?

Well, it's always hard for me to know the context of these quotes. I mean, Bobby has endorsed my race and encouraged me to get in. There's no doubt that in the history of African American politics in this country there has always been some tension between speaking in universal terms and speaking in very race-specific terms about the plight of the African American community. By virtue of my background, I am more likely to speak in universal terms.

May I read you another quote? This is from Peggy Noonan, the Republican speech writer, talking about another path-breaking politician, John F. Kennedy.

She said of Kennedy when he became president, "The good news was that the Irish Catholics had arrived. The bad news was that he was a Protestant from Harvard."

Look, identity politics in this country are always going to be complicated and African American politics in particular is weighted with extraordinary history — often painful and tragic history. And so I think my candidacy for the presidency is going to bring to the surface a whole bunch of stuff. A lot of it won't necessarily have to do with me, but will have to do with the country being in a dialogue about where we are now, how far we've come, and how far we have to go.

Do you think that your life and your experience as an African American would cause you as president to pursue any particular policy differently than if you'd been white? Would you be a different president in some way?

...There are certain instincts that I have that may be stronger because of my experiences as an African American. I don't think they're exclusive to African Americans but I think I maybe feel them more acutely. I think I would be very interested in having a civil rights division that is serious about enforcing civil rights laws. I think that when it comes to an issue like education for example, I feel great pain knowing that there are children in a lot of schools in America who are not getting anything close to the kind of education that will allow them to compete. And I think a lot of candidates, Republican and Democrat, feel concern about that. But when I know that a lot of those kids look just like my daughters, maybe it's harder for me to separate myself from their reality. Every time I see those kids, they feel like a part of me.

There's also a post-broadcast interview (audio, 1:55) about "Campaign Fundraising Efforts."

"Obama Highlights Swift Boat Funder's Hypocrisy"

Run Obama Blog:

Blogger Bob Geiger highlights a story that was overlooked by many yesterday.

The Bush administration has nominated Sam Fox to be the Ambassador of Belgium, who among other things, does not speak French or Flemish, the two dominant languages in Belgium. The Ambassadorship is not an inconsequential one either, as Brussels is the home to NATO Headquarters. But Fox is perhaps best known for the key financial role he played in funding the notorious Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group which were responsible for devastating (false) attacks on 2004 Democratic Nominee John Kerry.

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who was chairing the meeting, told Fox that he found his answers to Kerry "somewhat unsatisfying" and said that "The swift boat ads were of a different degree, even in the ugly arena of politics. They were extraordinarily well publicized, that there was essentially a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. It had a profound impact on the election."

And Obama tied a nice bow around the whole afternoon by basically calling Fox, who spent the entire time disavowing any knowledge of the Swift Boaters' mission or methods, a liar.

"To say that you gave because it's ugly out there and somebody asked you to give. I mean, it sounds to me like you were aware of it -- that this was not the best of political practices -- and you thought it was OK to go ahead and contribute to that," said Obama. "By the time you contributed, it was pretty widely noted -- it would have been hard for you to miss the fact that there was something particularly nasty and insidious about these ads. It had been well publicized at this point."

"I don't think you necessarily crafted the message but you certainly knew at that point what the message was."

"Obama wants to change security funding"

AP:

Says effort to ensure funding based on the threats states face, not politics. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to change the government's formula for giving states money for homeland security, with the early voting states getting a little extra.

Obama wants states that have a bigger risk from the terrorist threat to get more of federal homeland security dollars - also a recommendation from the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. That's an unpopular idea among lawmakers from smaller states who would lose funding on the switch.

Currently, each state gets at least a .75 percent share of the roughly $900 million in the state homeland security grant program. The Senate bill would lower that to .45 percent, and Obama, the Illinois senator, is offering an amendment that would cut it to .25 percent.

A memo by Obama's staff says the senator wants to "ensure the funding is allocated based on the threats states face, not politics."

But states with big political influence need not worry that they will get short shrift from the candidate's amendment.

Homeland security or politics?
The biggest benefactors would be Obama's home state and other heavily populated states. Illinois, California, New York, Texas and Florida would each get more than $1 million in extra funding under Obama's plan versus another proposal being debated in the Senate.

But even though they have much smaller populations, the leadoff Democratic primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina would not be harmed. Iowa would get an additional $119,824; Nevada would get $86,222 more; and South Carolina would receive $175,027 extra.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt points out that Obama doesn't determine which states have higher risk and therefore would get more money. Those calculations are made by the Department of Homeland Security, which won't reveal its methods or say just what makes Iowa more vulnerable than, say, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire would have had a drop in funding if Obama's proposal was simply based on risk. But Obama has a provision to ensure that states with an international border would stay at the .45 percent minimum, and New Hampshire's 58-mile dividing line with Canada qualifies it to keep the same amount that it would get in the current Senate bill.

In all, 34 states would get more money under Obama's amendment. That comes largely at the expense of eight smaller population states and the District of Columbia, which would lose more than $1.8 million each under the formula.

Rep. Adam Smith Announces Support for Obama

Politico:

Smith, who sits on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, said he has offered not only to help Obama "build contacts'' on the West Coast, but also on foreign policy issues.

"He's a very strong candidate with an excellent approach to issues,'' Smith said. "He's able to bring people together, rather than drive them apart. He's willing to say things the audience might not want to hear.''

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Barack Obama, February 27, 2007 (Toledo Blade (OH):

"If this is just about me, I will fail because I'm an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams."

"Blacks Shift To Obama, Poll Finds"

WaPo (front page):

The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more than a month ago heavily supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but now favor the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton, of New York, continues to lead Obama and other rivals in the Democratic contest, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. But her once-sizable margin over the freshman senator from Illinois was sliced in half during the past month largely because of Obama's growing support among black voters.

In the Republican race, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who recently made clear his intentions to seek the presidency, has expanded his lead over Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Giuliani holds a 2 to 1 advantage over McCain among Republicans, according to the poll, more than tripling his margin of a month ago.

The principal reason was a shift among white evangelical Protestants, who now clearly favor Giuliani over McCain. Giuliani is doing well among this group of Americans despite his support of abortion rights and gay rights, two issues of great importance to religious conservatives. McCain opposes abortion rights.

Among Democrats, Clinton still enjoys many of the advantages of a traditional front-runner. Pitted against Obama and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, she was seen by Democrats as the candidate with the best experience to be president, as the strongest leader, as having the best chance to get elected, as the closest to voters on the issues and as the candidate who best understands the problems "of people like you." Obama was seen as the most inspirational.

The Post-ABC News poll was completed days after aides to the two leading Democrats engaged in a testy exchange over comments critical of Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, by Hollywood mogul David Geffen, a former friend and financial backer of the Clintons who held a fundraiser for Obama last week in Los Angeles.

Early national polls are not always good predictors for presidential campaigns, but the Post-ABC poll offers clues to the competition ahead.

On the January weekend when she announced her candidacy, Clinton led the Democratic field with 41 percent. Obama was second at 17 percent, Edwards was third at 11 percent and former vice president Al Gore, who has said he has no plans to run, was fourth at 10 percent.

The latest poll put Clinton at 36 percent, Obama at 24 percent, Gore at 14 percent and Edwards at 12 percent. None of the other Democrats running received more than 3 percent. With Gore removed from the field, Clinton would gain ground on Obama, leading the Illinois senator 43 percent to 27 percent. Edwards ran third at 14 percent. The poll was completed the night Gore's documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award.

Clinton's and Obama's support among white voters changed little since December, but the shifts among black Democrats were dramatic. In December and January Post-ABC News polls, Clinton led Obama among African Americans by 60 percent to 20 percent. In the new poll, Obama held a narrow advantage among blacks, 44 percent to 33 percent. The shift came despite four in five blacks having a favorable impression of the New York senator.

African Americans view Clinton even more positively than they see Obama, but in the time since he began his campaign, his favorability rating rose significantly among blacks. In the latest poll, 70 percent of African Americans said they had a favorable impression of Obama, compared with 54 percent in December and January.

Overall, Clinton's favorability ratings dipped slightly from January, with 49 percent of Americans having a favorable impression and 48 percent an unfavorable impression. Obama's ratings among all Americans improved over the past month, with 53 percent saying they have a favorable impression and 30 percent saying they have an unfavorable impression.

Her position on the war in Iraq does not appear to be hurting Clinton among Democrats, even though she has faced hostile questioning from some voters about her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to go to war. Some Democrats have demanded that she apologize for the vote, which she has declined to do.

The Post-ABC News poll found that 52 percent of Democrats said her vote was the right thing to do at the time, while 47 percent said it was a mistake. Of those who called it a mistake, however, 31 percent said she should apologize. Among Democrats who called the war the most important issue in deciding their 2008 candidate preference, Clinton led Obama 40 to 26 percent.

In the Republican contest, McCain was once seen as the early, if fragile, front-runner for his party's nomination, but Giuliani's surge adds a new dimension to the race. In the latest poll, the former New York mayor led among Republicans with 44 percent to McCain's 21 percent. Last month, Giuliani led with 34 percent to McCain's 27 percent.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia ran third in the latest poll with 15 percent, while former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was fourth with 4 percent. Gingrich has not said he definitely plans to run, and without him, Giuliani's lead would increase even more, to 53 percent compared with McCain's 23 percent.

When Republicans were asked to rate Giuliani, McCain and Romney on a series of attributes, Giuliani was seen as the strongest leader, the most inspiring, the candidate with the best chance of winning the general election, the most honest and trustworthy and the one closest to them on the issues. McCain was seen as having the best experience to be president, but only by a narrow margin.

Giuliani faces potential problems because of his views on abortion and gay rights. More than four in 10 Republicans said they were less likely to support him because of those views. More than two in 10 Republicans said there was "no chance" they would vote for him.

With Clinton and Obama as possible barrier-breakers in this presidential campaign, Americans were asked how a candidate's race or sex would affect their vote. What the poll showed is that Americans indicated they were less likely to support a candidate older than 72 or a candidate who is a Mormon than a female or black candidate.

Those findings could affect McCain, who is 70, and Romney, who is a Mormon. Nearly six in 10 said they would be less likely to vote for someone older than 72, while three in 10 said they would be less likely to support a Mormon.

The Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Feb. 22-25 among a random sample of 1,082 adults, including an oversample of 86 black respondents. The margin of sampling error for the poll was plus or minus three percentage points; it is higher for the sub-samples.

"Clinton, Obama, Edwards: Beyond Paralysis"

Ron Walters (Chicago Defender):

Right now most of the national polls are showing that the race for the Democratic nomination for president is among the three individuals mentioned above with everyone else in the background hoping they will fade. On the other hand, polls of the Black community are showing that Hillary Clinton is ahead of Barack Obama by more than 2-to-1 (52-28; CBS News, Washington Post, January 2007). These are early polls reflect not only the name recognition of the candidates, but the early support among Blacks for their bid. However, the polls could not just be a reflection of name recognition, because if that were true, then John Edwards, having run for vice president most recently in 2004, would be ahead of Barack Obama in all of the polls ñ but he is not.

So, a discussion has arisen about such issues as the relative strength of the Black vote essentially between Obama and Clinton, why the Clinton support is so large and whether Black still owe the Clintons anything.

In actuality, these polls reflect, not only that many voters, especially Blacks, do not know Barack Obama, and thus, may be more comfortable now with the legacy of President Bill Clinton that Hillary inherits, rather than the promises of the person or program of Obama that they have yet to sort out.

Nevertheless, my view is that all of this is beside the point and leads off into endless discussions that, while interesting, don't directly address the exercise of Black power. The real question to be considered now is who can we make the next presidential nominee of the Democratic Party and how can we make that happen? That is to say, it is time to grow up and exercise the power represented by the Black vote within the Democratic Party in ways that return dividends our people and not allow the Black vote to be split three ways (or more) and become ineffectual in determining who the leadership will be. But this appears to be the road we are on, by choosing up sides based on personality rather than choosing up our interests.

The power we have is that the Black vote constitutes from 20 percent to 25 percent of the Democratic primary vote, depending upon the election and in some states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, it amounts to almost half of the Democratic vote. If Hilary or Obama win the early primaries in the predominantly White states of Iowa and New Hampshire, then South Carolina, where the Black vote is likely to be at least 40 percent of the total, could give either person tremendous momentum with two victories under his or her belt. So, there is a great deal at stake here in a decision by the Black community to support either one, or perhaps Edwards.
This a classic opportunity to exercise the leverage of the Black vote by organizing a process to influence who the nominee will be, in a multi-candidate field, that is somewhat complicated by the fact that all of them have credible records.

But what if one of them were to win the primary with the black vote badly split, then go on to win the presidency; we could not make as powerful a case for favorable public policy. The risk is that we deliberately organize and give one person our support and they loose the primary election. Not to worry, they still need our vote to win the general election. So beginning to think through and to organize a political process within the black community is fundamentally more important than the person right now.

My view is that candidate forums in the Black community should occur this year, then a Black convention early next year. The election campaign has moved off so quickly that it could be decided in the first set of primaries in January of next year. This means that any candidate forums organized next year may be too late to provide an opportunity for Blacks to learn to what extent a given candidate supports the Black agenda. Forums this year would provide an opportunity for the liberal agenda issues of Barack Obama to be seeded in the Black community throughout the nation, to give his support a chance to grow before voting begins next year. It would also test how the centrist ideology that Hilary Clinton supports may mesh with the vital interests of the Black community.

We are approaching another presidential election when there is so much at stake. In the past, blacks tended to give effective political strategy little play, but increasingly we won't be empowered without it.

"Hillary Clinton to join Barack Obama in Selma on Sunday"

WTVY NEWS (AL):

ELMA (AP) - Two major Democratic presidential candidates will be in Alabama this weekend.

Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York will both attend the annual bridge crossing ceremony in Selma on Sunday. It's held in commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

Obama was the first to publicly accept an invitation to the event. He will speak at the historic Brown Chapel AME Chapel church.

Now officials say Clinton will also attend the commemoration. And she will speak at another Selma church at the same time Obama is speaking.

Both are expected to join civil rights veterans in a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers led by Martin Luther King were confronted by state police in 1965.

Obama and Clinton are hoping to win the support of minority voters across the Deep South. The Alabama ceremony is expected to be the first time they appear at dueling events so close together.

Cross-posted at www.howieinseattle.com.

Obama Ba-rocks Ohio

Kent Daily Stater:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama told thousands of Northeast Ohioans last night that they may find themselves voting in their own campaign during the next presidential election.

"I can't do this all alone, and I don't want to make promises I can't keep," he told supporters who had gathered in Cuyahoga Community College's east campus gymnasium. "If you think this election is all about me - you're wrong. This election is about your hopes and dreams, and I am absolutely confident that change will happen."

Representing the American people was one of many points the hopeful made during his rally. Obama touched on a variety of issues, including the war in Iraq.

"Whether you were for the war or against it before, we can all agree that it's time to give Iraq back to its people," he said. "There's no military solution."

Obama said he agreed with British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to pull British troops out of Iraq and said he would like to see all American troops out of the country by March 2008.

In addition, Obama said, if elected, he promises to make health care available to all U.S. citizens.

"In a country that spends $1.9 trillion on health care, having 46 million Americans uninsured makes no sense," he said.

Barack also said he would like to see the cost of higher education decrease so more people could attend college.

When discussing America's economy, he said it's time for a dramatic change.

"The economy is changing and some people at the top are doing better than before," he said. "Corporate profits have never been higher, yet we have people all around this region taking buses and trains to get to work - they haven't seen a wage increase in years."

Students were enthusiastic with Obama's speech and plans for America's future.

"I feel he's the Bobby Kennedy of this generation," said Rick Coffey, a Kent State sophomore musical theater major, adding he supports Obama because of his stance on the Iraq war.

RaeAnn Roca, senior public relations and political science major at Northern Ohio University, said she came to the rally because she has loved Obama since she saw him at the Democratic National Convention.

"He has been against the war in Iraq since the beginning," she said. "He always said he wouldn't vote for the war. He's not a flip-flopper and that's very noble."

After giving his speech, Obama left his supporters with a message of hope.

"If I can believe in a better America, so can you," he said. "I guarantee you, Cleveland, a better America."

Cincinnati Enquirer:

1,000 pay to see Obama. Even the event’s organizer, state Sen. Eric Kearney, said he was astounded by the success of Monday’s Barack Obama fundraiser event at the Westin hotel downtown, which might have raised as much as $500,000 for the Illinois Democrat’s presidential campaign.

About 1,000 Obama supporters – including a handful of Republicans – crammed the main ballroom at the Westin. There weren’t enough seats at the tables to go around.

Dozens had to stand through the breakfast, lining the ballroom walls.

It was an unusually large fundraising event for Cincinnati, which spoke to the star power Obama carries. Former President Clinton drew only 600 to a downtown hotel last October when he appeared at a fundraiser for John Cranley’s congressional campaign.

No reporters or cameras were allowed inside. An impromptu press conference promised by a campaign aide after the breakfast failed to materialize.

Obama’s security detail, concerned about moving the Illinois senator through a crowd of hundreds of supporters to where the media was camped out, whisked him out of the Westin through a side door.

The cheapest ticket for the morning event was $100, but those who paid $1,000 or more got to spend about half an hour in a private room with Obama before the main breakfast.

Those who donated $2,300 – the maximum contribution allowed for the presidential primary cycle – had their picture taken with the candidate, who is hands-down the rock star of the early campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Asked afterward how much was raised, Kearney – whose wife, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, was a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama – said that while the checks were still being counted, the event raised at least $350,000 and perhaps as much as $500,000.

“It was unbelievable,” said Kearney. “The people just kept coming.”

What was most impressive, Kearney said, was “how diverse a crowd it was – whites, blacks, Latinos, Asian folks, rich and poor. It shows the broad appeal Barack has.”

A considerable number of people bought “walk-up” tickets to the 8 a.m. breakfast.

As of Sunday night, about 750 tickets had been sold. In the end, at least 1,000 people paid the price to see and hear Obama, a first-term senator whose presidential campaign has created much of the early buzz on the 2008 presidential campaign trail.

Inside the reception for large donors was one of Cincinnati’s most high profile supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign has been trading barbs with the Obama campaign over the past week.

Class-action lawyer Stan Chesley, who has raised millions for President Clinton and for Sen. Clinton’s campaigns, said he was there because he has “enormous respect” for Obama.

“Of course, I am supporting Hillary, but, mainly I want to see the best Democrats run for president,” Chesley said. “Sen. Obama is very impressive.”

The crowd inside the main breakfast event ranged from enthusiastic supporters of the Illinois senator to Democrats who have yet to make up their minds about the field of party presidential contenders.

Myrtis Grace, of Bond Hill, a retired teacher, said Obama has “re-ignited my interest in politics.”

“I worked for (John F.) Kennedy and for Bill Clinton, but I haven’t been involved lately,” Grace said. “But Sen. Obama is inspiring. He’s so passionate.”

Cincinnati Councilwoman Laketa Cole, a Democrat, said she has yet to make up her mind about which presidential candidate to support, but came away impressed by Obama.

“I want to hear Hillary; I want to hear all of them,’ Cole said. “But he made a great speech, talking about bringing the country together, healing the divisions. I like that.”

Harold Brooks, a long-time Republican Party activist from Westwood, said he came to the breakfast because he plans to help organize a “Black Republicans for Obama” organization in Ohio.

“My party may not like it, but I support Sen. Obama,” Brooks said. “He’s the best candidate I’ve seen.”

Obama’s appearance in Cincinnati drew a response from the Hamilton County Republican Party, in the form of a written statement from Maggie Nafziger, the party’s executive director.

“Sen. Obama’s lack of leadership and liberal voting record is concerning,’’ Nafziger said in a press release. “I am not sure he is prepared to function as head of the world’s most powerful nation at such a crucial time in our nation’s history.”

Obama is the first of the announced Democratic candidates to campaign in Cincinnati.

After the Cincinnati event, Obama was scheduled to go to Columbus for a private fundraising event and then on to Cleveland for a late-day public rally, making the rounds of the major cities in a state that is likely to have a great deal to say about who becomes the 44th president of the United States.

Cincinnati Post:

CINCINNATI — Following the national hoopla surrounding the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, Brenda Gibson came downtown early Monday to see why "people are hollering about him."

After buying a ticket for a breakfast fundraiser at the Westin Hotel and hearing the Illinois Democrat speak, now she knows.

"He feels like an old classmate, very solid, very steady, very sure," said Gibson, a mechanical engineer of Silverton. "Most of the time when a politician talks to you, (you) feel like they're giving you a line. (He's) very straightforward."

Gibson's reaction was echoed by many in the diverse, standing room only crowd of up to 1,000 people who packed the hotel's third-floor ballroom. The event was organized by state Sen. Eric Kearney and his wife, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. The North Avondale couple are friends of Obama and she attended Harvard Law School with him.

Tickets to the breakfast cost $100. For $1,000, contributors got into a private reception, and for $2,300, they could have their picture taken with the candidate. The event raised an estimated $350,000.

Middletown political movers and shakers recognized Obama's political savvy for coming to Ohio to raise money for his presidential bid.

"It's a critical state," said Anita Scott Jones, the newly elected president of the Middletown unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Ohio will remain a battleground state," agreed Steve Hightower, a local businessman involved in state and national Democratic politics. "Whoever wins Ohio will win the presidency. I think it's wise to hit the ground in Ohio now."

Jim Ewers, associate dean for student affairs at Miami University Middletown, said he thinks right now Obama has as good a chance as anyone in securing his party's nomination.

"I think that Barack Obama has in many circles widespread appeal. There is something very unifying about his message."

However, Hightower is not overly optimistic about an Obama White House.

"I think the question still remains, 'Is America ready for a black president?' I would say not. History moves at a very slow pace," he said. "I think there are many people, whites in America, that cannot come to grips with voting for a black leader, whereas blacks are used to voting for white leaders."

"Obama Makes Multiple Ohio Campaign Stops"

AP and TV10.com (OH):

The race for the White House came to Ohio Monday.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama planned four events in the Buckeye state as he chased his dream to become president.

This was Senator Obama's first trip to the Buckeye State since announcing he's running for president in 2008.

He kicked off the Ohio trip Monday morning at a private fundraiser in Cincinnati and 750 people showed up. They paid between $100 and $2300 each to see him.

"I think he's got broad, broad, and diverse appeal," said state Sen. Eric Kearney, D-Cincinnati, who helped organize the event.

Attorney Stan Chesley, a Hillary Clinton supporter who also raised money for President Bill Clinton, said he thinks Obama is an exciting addition to the Democratic field. Chesley said he was at the event for a variety of reasons, including to support Kearney.

He then went to Columbus, where Obama told a gathering that he decided to run for the White House because he saw a window of opportunity.

The Democrat said people are listening now, and wanting change in the direction of the country.

More than 100 supporters paid up to $2,300 to attend the event at the Miranova. Organizers were expecting to raise about $95,000.

Monday afternoon, Obama is holding his only public event in Cleveland, a 6 p.m. rally at Cuyahoga Community College. That is free and open to the public and no tickets are needed.

The Obama for America campaign said the senator will be in Ohio, "a lot," because this is a very important state to him.

If you want to follow his movements, there's a blog with pictures of all his public events on http://www.BarackObama.com.

"Obama calls war in Iraq 'ill-conceived'"

AP (Kentucky.com) :

In Louisville, says it distracts from war on terror. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama spoke last night to a crowd of at least 3,000 supporters who waited nearly two hours for him to arrive for his first campaign stop in Kentucky.

The Illinois Democrat apologized for the delay, saying snow in Chicago kept him from arriving sooner.

"We had a blizzard up in Chicago," Obama said. "It was snowing and sleeting and blizzarding."

"There was no way I was not going to make 3,000 people coming out," he said to audience members who paid $25 a ticket for the event. A higher dollar fund-raising event was scheduled later at the nearby Henry Clay Hotel.

Obama talked about concerns that as a freshman U.S. senator, he is too inexperienced to be president.

"Some people might ask, 'How can this guy be president? He's only been in Washington for two years.' Let me tell you, I've been in Washington long enough to see that things need to be changed," he said.

Obama touched upon the issues that he has focused on in stump speeches during his two-week-old campaign: education, health care, energy policy, economic policy and the war in Iraq.

Loud applause rose from the crowd each time he said, "At the end of my first term as president."

On Iraq, he called the war "ill-conceived" and said it is "distracting attention away from the war on terrorism."

He called for a phased redeployment beginning May 1 and a complete pullout of combat troops by March 31, 2008.

"We cannot bring about change in Iraq militarily," he said. "What we can't do is put our young men and women in the middle of a sectarian war. It won't work."

Obama is considered among the early front-runners for the Democratic nomination with U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, appeared on stage with Obama, but said his appearance wasn't an endorsement.

"I would be here for any of the Democratic candidates," he said. "But if he's the nominee, I will be extremely enthusiastic."

"Two steps forward, one step back"

Markos:

The best thing Barack Obama may have done this young primary season was to freeze out Fox News after their "Madrassas" smear of him. I don't know if he's still cutting them off, but fact is, he sent an unmistakable message -- he'll only deal with legitimate news operations, and Fox News ain't one of them.

This was a huge step forward. Fox News is unabashedly movement oriented -- focused on promoting Republicans at the expense of Democrats. Every decision they make, from top to bottom, is predicated on that very simply mission.
(snip)
But I suppose politics is about measuring baby steps. And the Nevada Democratic Party's decision to give Fox News rights to one of our field's debates sets back much of our hard work.

Would Republicans hold a debate on Air America? Would they live blog on Daily Kos? Only if they were idiots. But apparently, that very simple notion eludes our top Democrats.

And not just in Nevada. Howard Dean has endorsed the effort as a way to, um, let Fox News talking heads make fun of Democrats to a large audience:

But the Nevada party organizers -- and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean -- said Thursday that while they may not think much of Fox's reporting, they want to reach out to viewers of the largest cable news network, one with double the number of prime-time viewers of CNN. And one whose believability is much higher with Republicans than Democrats, according to a 2005 study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
(snip)
Howard Dean has forgotten his own battles with Fox, and is now eagerly helping legitimize the right-wing's smear machine. Perhaps there's a limit to how long one spends in DC before they lose common sense.

So it comes down to the candidates.

The second- and third-tier candidates are desperate for any exposure, and won't turn down the debate. But a couple of the top-tier candidates have complained about the heavy debate schedule. So once again, here's a chance to clear up some of that calendar for more productive endeavors.

Skipping this debate will have a second positive effect -- gratitude from lots like me who don't appreciate Democrats bolstering the enemy's smear propaganda machine.

"Mud, Dust, Whatever"

Bob Herbert (NY Times):

If Bill and Hillary Clinton were the stars of a reality TV show, it would be a weekly series called “The Connivers.” The Clintons, the most powerful of power couples, are always scheming at something, and they’re good at it.

Their latest project is to contrive ways to knock Barack Obama off his white horse and muddy him up a little. A lot, actually.

Most of the analyses after last week’s dust-up over David Geffen’s comments to Maureen Dowd have focused on whether the Clintons succeeded in tarnishing the junior senator from Illinois. What I found interesting was that no one questioned whether the Clintons would be willing to get down in the muck and start flinging it around. That was a given.

When Senator Obama talks about bringing a new kind of politics to the national scene, he’s talking about something that would differ radically from the relentlessly vicious, sleazy, mendacious politics that have plagued the country throughout the Bush-Clinton years. Whether he can pull that off is an open question. But there’s no doubt the Clintons want to stop him from succeeding.

Senator Obama has come riding out of the wilderness (all right, Chicago) to stand between the Clintons and their dream of returning to the White House and resuming what they will always see as the glory years of the 1990s.

He hurts Senator Clinton in myriad ways. In all the uproar over Mr. Geffen’s comments, hardly anyone has said they were wildly off the mark. There would be no Obama phenomenon if an awful lot of people weren’t fed up with just the sort of mean-spirited, take-no-prisoners politics that the Clintons and the Bush crowd represent. Senator Obama — at least for the time being — is an extremely attractive alternative.

Right behind that as a factor is the distinct possibility that Mr. Obama will ride off with the black vote, without which the Clintons are doomed. Those who joked that Bill Clinton was the first black president are now confronted with someone who might be the real deal.

Senator Obama is also much freer to take fresh stands on the issues. His camp has been delighted, for example, to watch Senator Clinton twist herself into a pretzel on Iraq. From day care to health care to trade and beyond, Mr. Obama is free to offer something new. He’s not tied to the Clinton experience, the Clintonian way of viewing the world.

And, finally, this campaign is not the be-all and end-all for Senator Obama. More easily than the Clintons, he can afford to make mistakes. He does not have to win this election. He can fight another day. In the absence of any catastrophic misstep, he could be selected as a vice-presidential candidate this time around. (It’s not too hard to imagine a John Edwards-Barack Obama pairing.) He can run again for president four years from now, or eight years from now.

His future, as Yogi might have said, is all in front of him.

The Clintons were fresh once. I remember the exhilarating bus tour they took with Al and Tipper Gore right after Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination in the summer of 1992. There was a spontaneous quality to that tour and a sense that these four young leaders represented a new dawn of American politics.

Almost 15 years later, Hillary Clinton has to fight the perception that she is chasing yesterday’s dawn. She has the benefit of universal name recognition, uniformly high poll numbers and trainloads of campaign cash. But she still gives the impression that she’s riding the political high wire with the mixed blessing of Bill Clinton planted firmly on her shoulders.

It’s ironic that the first woman with a real shot at the presidency comes off not as a compelling underdog but as the powerful front-runner at the controls of a ruthless political machine.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Senator Obama is really offering a new, more hopeful brand of national politics. But here’s a bit of unsolicited advice for a candidate making his first foray into the crucible of presidential politics:

Don’t listen to those who tell you not to fight back against the Clintons. You will not become president if you allow yourself to become their punching bag. Keep in mind the Swift-boating of John Kerry. Raising politics to a higher level does not mean leaving oneself defenseless.

"Hope outrunning experience in primary race"

LA Times:

As Obama shows, more service in Washington doesn't necessarily give Democratic hopefuls more mileage in polls. Michelle Obama bristled at charges that her husband was not experienced enough for the presidency.

"We've heard this spewed from the lips of rivals every phase of our journey: He is not experienced enough, he should wait his turn," she recently told supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who at 45 is serving his first Senate term. Only political insiders, she said, would look at his life accomplishments "and dare to have the audacity to say he is not ready."

Experience — and how to measure it — has become one of the first big debating points of the 2008 presidential race.

In one of the curiosities of the Democratic primary, some of the candidates with the most experience in national politics are at the bottom of the early popularity surveys. By contrast, Obama, with a mere three years on the national stage, is this year's campaign-trail sensation.

And so Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut (with 33 years in the House and Senate) has been trying to heighten the importance of Washington knowledge, making a constant refrain of his claim that President Bush proves the dangers of on-the-job training in the White House. "I think people do care about experience," Dodd said.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico (15 years in the House, two years as U.N. ambassador, three years as energy secretary) touts his "unparalleled experience." And Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (35 years in the Senate) has said of his campaign rivals: "It's not so much whether I can compete with their money, but whether they can compete with my ideas and my experience."

Even former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who served a single term before opening a White House bid in 2004, has brought his twist to the issue. Asked at an event last month how he differed from Obama, Edwards said: "Experience. I've been through a presidential campaign."

Advocates for Obama, as for other candidates who are positioning themselves as outsiders to Washington's political culture, like to say that the range of their life experiences makes them more fit for office than those who have spent their careers in government. In Obama's case, that resume includes stints as a community organizer, law professor, civil rights attorney and eight-year member of the Illinois state Senate.

Obama's allies also assert that a wealth of government experience did not make Vice President Dick Cheney or former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld any wiser in confronting the nation's problems. And Obama launched his campaign from Springfield, Ill. — a city identified with Abraham Lincoln — perhaps to remind voters that one of the country's greatest presidents had little Washington experience before he reached the White House. (Lincoln had served one House term and 12 years in the Illinois Legislature.)

Among conservative voters, experience is prized. "Republicans generally believe, particularly conservatives, that we are electing a wartime president, so experience will be critical," said GOP political consultant Christopher Barron. "It's one of the reasons you continue to see someone like Rudy Giuliani over-performing among conservatives who disagree with him on a litany of social issues."

Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and federal prosecutor, built a national reputation as a steady leader after the Sept. 11 attacks. He leads in several early polls of Republican voters.

Democratic voters have been more willing to sacrifice experience for other qualities, such as a candidate's ability to inspire the public, some analysts say. "The essential tension in the race is between hope and experience," Jennifer Duffy of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said of the Democratic primary campaign. "Every 25 years or so, we elect a president who gives us hope."

With the latest CBS News poll showing that only 26% of Americans think the country is moving in the right direction, Duffy said, this may be an election in which inspirational candidates triumph.

To some degree, history bears out the idea that too much Washington experience can harm a candidate's image. "The irony is that the longer you serve in the U.S. Congress, the lower odds are you can get elected president," said UCLA political scientist Mark A. Peterson. "Nobody since John F. Kennedy has gone from the legislative branch to the White House."

Members of Congress sometimes talk in an arcane language of amendments, earmarks and resolutions that makes them less than approachable to voters. Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers, says Sen. John F. Kerry, who had represented Massachusetts for 20 years, lost his audience at a 2004 Democratic primary debate in the first moments when he trumpeted the fact that he had introduced an amendment to a Biden bill.

Still, some historians argue that prior Washington experience is helpful to a president, even though several who had limited contact with the federal bureaucracy did well.

"With Lincoln as the exception, what you find is that the experienced do perform better," said Bruce Schulman, a political historian at Boston University.

The willingness even to entertain selecting an outsider for the nation's highest office may be a trait that the United States shares with few other countries. "If you go to England or France or Germany, rarely is it conceivable to see heads of government and ministerial positions without extensive government experience," Peterson said. "This is deeply rooted in the nature of modern American politics."

"There's a schizophrenia of the American political mind," said Jamie McKown, political scientist at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. "We want to have a beer or a cup of coffee with the candidates, but if they can't point out Tajikistan on a map, we're suspicious. We want them to be everyday people and superhuman."

Bill Clinton, a former governor and attorney general of Arkansas, won the White House in 1992 running against more-seasoned political resumes with his formidable communications skills — an ability to act both as just "one of the guys" and a policy-loving Rhodes scholar.

"Either you prove to be an effective or ineffective campaigner," Baker said. "That's the difference: the extent to which you can connect with voters."

Some think that Obama's fresh face will help him on that front.

"Most voters want something new," said Democratic consultant Donna Brazile, who managed then-Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000. "They want less D.C. experience and more good values."

"As Candidate, Obama Carves Antiwar Stance"

NY Times:

Senator Barack Obama is running for president as one of the few candidates who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, a simple position unburdened by expressions of regret or decisions over whether to apologize for initially supporting the invasion.

Iraq remains a defining topic in the opening stages of the 2008 presidential race, but it may prove easier for Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, to revisit the past than to distinguish his views in the future. The current Iraq proposals of Mr. Obama; Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York; and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina share more similarities than differences, including a gradual withdrawal of troops.

Though Mr. Obama is framing his candidacy to appeal to Democrats who have long opposed the war, until recently he was not among his party’s most outspoken voices against it. He campaigned strongly against the war in his bid for the Senate in 2004, but when he arrived in Washington he waited 11 months to deliver a major speech on Iraq.

And only after Mr. Obama opened a presidential exploratory committee did he introduce legislation to withdraw American combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008.

In an interview last week, Mr. Obama said he intended to continue using the authorization of the war to distinguish himself from fellow Democratic presidential candidates. In addition to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards, Senators Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware voted to authorize the invasion.

“The authorization vote is relevant only because it gives an insight into how people think about these problems and suggests the sort of judgment they apply in evaluating a policy decision,” Mr. Obama said. “There are people who sincerely believe that this was the best course of action, but in some cases politics entered into the calculation. In retrospect, a lot of people feel like they didn’t ask hard enough questions.”

Mr. Obama was not always so critical of the Congressional vote, taken on Oct. 11, 2002. In several interviews before the Democratic National Convention in 2004, where his national political ascent began, he said he did not place blame on Democrats who had voted to authorize the war, conceding he had not been privy to the same intelligence information.

Now, he appears intent on drawing the contrast between his early opposition to the war and the Senate votes to authorize it by Mr. Edwards, who has since repudiated his vote and apologized for it, and Mrs. Clinton, who has not apologized but has said she would not have supported the resolution had she known then what she knows now.

These days Mr. Obama dismisses the suggestion that it was easier for him to speak against the war because he was not serving in the Senate and therefore not obligated to vote on the matter. He recalled worrying, at the time, that he might lose his Senate primary election because of his decision to oppose the Iraq invasion.

“It certainly didn’t look like a cost-free decision when Saddam Hussein’s statue was being pulled down in Baghdad,” Mr. Obama said in an interview. “I was in a hotel room in the middle of my Senate campaign, watching that happen, and President Bush’s job approval rating was at 60 percent. Those who voted for the authorization felt pretty good.”

In a Senate debate on Iraq last June, Mr. Obama voted to oppose an amendment seeking to set a specific timetable for withdrawing American troops. His current position on a withdrawal mirrors the conclusions of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which recommended a specific time frame for troops to leave.

Now the politics of the war seem to be working in his favor among Democratic primary voters.

As Mr. Obama has introduced himself in the opening weeks of his candidacy, few subjects have garnered more applause than his criticism of the war. He does not refer to the conflict as Mr. Bush’s war, which antiwar candidates in the Democratic Party did in the 2004 election, but rather is seeking to expand the circle of responsibility to those who supported the invasion.

“We continue to be in a war that should never have been authorized,” Mr. Obama told an audience in Iowa last week, making a not-so-subtle reference to Mrs. Clinton and other Democratic rivals. Two days later, at a Texas rally, he said, “I am proud of the fact that way back in 2002, I said that this war was a mistake.”

As if on cue, the crowds of Democrats cheered with gusto.

Nolden Gentry, a lawyer in Des Moines who has been in audiences to see Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama in the past month, said Mr. Obama’s position on Iraq was one of many factors setting his candidacy apart in the eyes of Democrats. “He’s more pure on the war,” Mr. Gentry said, walking from a town meeting where he and 2,200 others had seen Mr. Obama.

Sterletha Grover, an account representative for a computer company who saw Mr. Obama speak to about 20,000 people on Friday in Austin, Tex., said she liked his view on Iraq. “We shouldn’t have gone there in the beginning,” she said.

Mr. Obama highlights his points of distinction on the war in meetings with party officials and influential donors as well. During his trip to Des Moines last week, he met behind closed doors with members of the Iowa House of Representatives and the State Senate. In both sessions, participants said, he raised the issue of Iraq himself.

Still, his proposals for Iraq do not go as far as those of others in the Democratic field, particularly that of Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, who voted against the Iraq authorization and has recommended cutting military spending to end the war. Mr. Edwards, too, has called on Congress to pass substantive legislation that would, among other measures, block financing for a buildup of troops. Mr. Obama has not suggested such proposals.

Among the differences in the plans offered by Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton is that she does not propose setting a deadline for American troops to be withdrawn. The titles of their plans, though, are similar. Hers is called the Iraq Troop Reduction and Protection Act of 2007, and his is the Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007.

In the interview last week, Mr. Obama said that he had not wavered on Iraq since the onset of the war and that he disagreed with critics who said he had become more vocal since becoming a candidate. He said he did not deliver speeches on the topic when he first arrived in the Senate because he was taking a low-key approach in his first year in office.

“As a freshman, our objective was not to try to get in the front all the time,” Mr. Obama said. “But the truth is that in that first year, we had just seen an Iraqi election, and my feeling was that while I was not optimistic, it was appropriate to try to give the nascent government a chance.”

At the time, Mr. Obama was also not planning to run for president. He opened his presidential exploratory committee on Jan. 16. The next day, Mrs. Clinton presented her Iraq plan on Capitol Hill.

As he stepped into an elevator that day, reporters asked whether he would be presenting a specific Iraq proposal. “That will be coming soon,” he replied. Aides went to work, formulating legislation consistent with his views from more than four years earlier. And 13 days later, on Jan. 30, his plan was introduced.

"When a No-Win State is a Show-Down State"

TIME:

When the 2008 general election comes around, Texas will most likely remain red. But its capital Austin is the blue heart of this very crimson state and has been regarded as solid Clinton territory for campaign contributions and support. After all, this was where Bill and Hillary cut their political teeth as McGovern organizers. On Friday, however, U.S. Senator Barack Obama staked his claim.

This isn't about electoral votes. It is about money, convention delegates, more money, and proving who can best inspire a vital national Democratic constituency, Hispanic voters. So far, Hillary Clinton has appeared to be holding all the cards in Texas. Nevertheless, against the backdrop of the Geffen flap, Obama has pulled up a chair at the poker table.

It seemed more rock concert than political rally as 20,000 Texans gathered Friday afternoon in that same downtown Austin park for what Obama's campaign dubbed a "Kick-Ass Rally." The crowd was predominately young, the music by Cyril Neville and Tribe 13 first-class funky, and the misty rain was infused with the occasional aroma of marijuana. Only the sea of signs with "Obama '08" gave the slightest hint that this was a political event. A favorite Obama theme is the government failures following Hurricane Katrina, so it was appropriate that Neville, a New Orleans evacuee who has settled in Austin, performed at the rally. But what was unconventional was Neville was the warm-up act. There were no local or state politicians to whip up the crowd. In fact, the only identifiable Texas politician spotted at the event was Constable Bruce Elfant, a popular local Democrat with longtime ties to student Democratic organizations.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton stood on the same ground, most of the members of the Obama crowd, including the head of the University of Texas Democratic Club, who made a brief welcoming speech, were in grade school. This rally evoked more recent Democratic politics. It had the same vibe as the Howard Deaniac gatherings in Austin coffeeshops and brewpubs during the 2004 presidential cycle. Obama volunteer Laura Stromberg, whose last political foray was as press secretary to musician/novelist Kinky Friedman during his unsuccessful Texas 2006 gubernatorial bid, said most of the people she had met within the Obama movement had been Howard Dean supporters.

But while Dean served up red-hot rhetoric, Obama's pitch is lower-key and longer. After a wild and enthusiastic welcome, the Senator settled into a laundry list of liberal Democratic issues — health care, the environment, better teacher pay, lower interest on student loans, broadband in the inner cities and, of course, an end to American involvement in Iraq. His criticisms of the war drew the loudest applause, his appeals to brotherhood and comity, his Martin Luther King quotes drew nods and smiles, but 35 minutes into his 40-minute speech, as he told a long story about a campaign trip to southern Illinois with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, some of the crowd began to peel away

"I like the guy, but I don't think he is ready yet to be President," said Garry Mauro, a longtime Clinton Texas operative and former statewide officeholder. "People like Obama — he's the future, but that's the point." Mauro hosted a fundraiser for Obama in 2004 after the Senator captured the imagination of the Democratic National Convention. Now, Mauro is organizing a mid-March series of fundraisers for Hillary Clinton in South Texas and mixing his praise for Obama with Texas straight talk. Obama's presidential announcement was "amateurish," Mauro said. Worse, the Senator made a "horrible mistake" by not distancing himself from Hollywood producer David Geffen's characterizations of the Clintons as liars.

Not all Texas Democrats are riding in Hillary's train. Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk has announced he is an enthusiastic Obama supporter. An unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2001, now a high-powered Dallas attorney, Kirk was part of the so-called multiracial dream ticket that failed to energize key Democratic base voters. "Ron helps Obama with the media, but he doesn't move votes, or move money," said Andy Hernandez, a San Antonio Democratic political operative and analyst.

Kirk's endorsement is part of what Hernandez calls the "visible primary" in this now extended presidential season. The media is focused on the visible primary, where Obama is making gains, but Hillary Clinton is still winning the "invisible primary" in Texas, he said.

"He's going to fire up voters here in Texas, but he's not going to derail her," Hernandez said. "Hispanic voters have always loved the Clintons." So far, no key African-American or Hispanic Texas officeholders or power brokers have moved publicly into the Obama camp.

Aside from a major meltdown or gaffe or some world-changing event, Hillary Clinton appears to be in good shape in Texas. There is one card Obama can play. Internet fundraising has fundamentally changed presidential politics, Mauro said. While Obama's stump speech may run a little too long, one section he is not likely to cut is his appeal for those Deaniac converts to organize on the Internet. He urged the crowd to give five or ten dollars and to tell their friends to go to barackobama.com and do the same.

"I want you to tell them: 'It's time for you to turn off the TV and stop playing Game Boy.... I don't want to have to raise money in Hollywood all the time," Obama told the crowd.

"The Bill Clinton factor. Obama repudiates staff hardball tactics"

Lynn Sweet (Chicago Sun-Times):

Bill Clinton's personal behavior...will it matter in 2008 race? LOS ANGELES -- As White House hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama competed for major California Democratic donors the last few days, the campaign trail took the rivals to uncharted territory.

The Bill Clinton elephant entered the room.

The matter of former President Clinton's personal behavior -- you know the references -- surfaced in Maureen Dowd's New York Times interview with movie mogul David Geffen, who co-hosted a $1.3 million fund-raiser in Beverly Hills for Obama on Tuesday.

Geffen's acidic remarks about the Clintons triggered a mudslinging exchange between the Clinton and Obama camps.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson started with a demand for Obama to disavow the Geffen comments; Obama communications chief Robert Gibbs countered by bringing up a controversial supporter of Clinton's in South Carolina and harkening back to the campaign finance scandals dating to the President Clinton era.

Wolfson went public after BlackBerrying his statement to Clinton. Gibbs acted without the knowledge of Obama, so I'm told by the two camps.

In a lesser noted part of the interview, Geffen said Bill Clinton is a "reckless guy" who "gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country."

Geffen also said in the interview he's not talking about the past, "I don't think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person."

Intended or not, Geffen planted a seed.

That "reckless" statement implicitly raised a smeary flag about the present-day relationship between the Clintons -- territory seen as personal and absolutely off-limits by anyone associated with the New York senator.

Lanny Davis, who handled scandal control for the Bill Clinton White House, said the bottom line is this when we talked Friday: "David Geffen's attack on two of the most popular Democrats among Democratic voters in the U.S. ... says more about Mr. Geffen having an anger management problem than any potential harm among Democrats to Bill and Hillary Clinton."

OBAMA REPUDIATES STAFF

Obama repudiated the hardball tactics of his own staff. And he made it seem he was clueless about a major story dealing with his own campaign.

In a front page New York Times interview published Friday, Obama suggested that his marching orders to stay on the high road were ignored, quite a public flogging.

Obama, in his two-week old campaign, is offering himself as the antidote to a cynicism he asserts is poisoning U.S. politics. One of Obama's stump lines goes something like this: His rival in the Democratic primary "is not other candidates," he says, "it's cynicism."

Gibbs and Wolfson mixing it up is campaign business as usual. The back-and-forth, however, exposed Obama to a risk -- being called a hypocrite.

Obama decided not to handle matters internally, however.

"I told my staff that I don't want us to be a party to these kinds of distractions because I want to make sure that we're spending time talking about issues," Obama told the paper. He added, "My preference going forward is that we have to be careful not to slip into the game as it is customarily played."

Obama, who is rarely without a cell phone or BlackBerry, seemed curiously removed from a major political story dealing with his campaign.

He told the Times the clash erupted as he was flying back to Chicago from Los Angeles on a red eye. Then, he was busy getting a haircut and taking his kids to school.

Later that day, he was back in a plane, presumably with aides who could have delivered the news.

Folks may well have been ready to move on by the end of the week. But Obama, in a baffling strategy, made a surprising call -- to the New York Times.

"In Clinton’s Backyard, It’s Open Season as an Obama Fund-Raiser Lines Up Donors"

NY Times:

Twenty-eight stories above Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, Jeh Johnson was dialing away.

The race was on for New York’s prized political donors, and Mr. Johnson, one of Senator Barack Obama’s leading fund-raisers in the city, was trying to poach in the heart of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s financial territory.

Before the day was up, Mr. Johnson got about a dozen people on the phone with the pitch that Mr. Obama represented “a generational shift” away from the partisan chokehold gripping Washington. A few told him they were not ready to give, but more than half said they were willing to sign checks and come to a March 9 fund-raiser at the Grand Hyatt New York.

He called Joyce Johnson, a family friend (she was once his baby sitter) who lives on the Upper West Side and who has run unsuccessfully for State Assembly and the City Council over the past few years. She said she was on board with Mr. Obama’s campaign, with some trepidation.

“A lot of the women who supported me are supporting Hillary,” Ms. Johnson said. She named a West Side activist who has, in the past, raised money for Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York.

“Ricki Lieberman is like my godmother,” Ms. Johnson said, “And she’s going with Hillary and I’m going the other way. Keep talking to me, Jeh. Give me some sea legs. Tell me what to say.”

Mr. Johnson, whose name is pronounced jay, leaned back in his chair and said: “Joyce, we had 30 or 40 people here in my office last night for a preliminary meeting on this, and another 30 on the phone. One thing you learn quickly is that when the name Barack Obama is involved, you always have more people show up than you expected.”

Mr. Johnson, a lawyer at Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison, is a linchpin in uphill efforts to build a donor base for Mr. Obama in New York, where many potential supporters have at some time in the last 16 years aided the Clintons.

Mr. Obama’s ability to raise significant amounts of money depends on the success that people like Mr. Johnson have among New York’s all-important Democratic fund-raising circles, which the Clinton camp has moved aggressively to corral by battling any perception that elements of the party are drifting away. And part of Mr. Johnson’s pitch must be that by contributing to the Obama campaign, Democrats are not showing disloyalty to the Clintons, a fear that can be heard in his conversations with donors.

“Look, if it doesn’t work out, then hopefully the nominee will get over it,” he told one donor in discussing the possibility of a Clinton victory and its ramifications for the Obama camp. “She’ll need all the help she can get, particularly from the people associated with his campaign.”

The Clintons have dominated the fund-raising race for Democratic-party money in New York since long before Mrs. Clinton held office in the state, Mr. Johnson said. “She and her husband have been working New York for 16 years and they know where they are,” he added. “But I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people with who signs up.”

The Obama campaign has already attracted a number of fund-raisers with ties to Mrs. Clinton or her husband, like Orin Kramer, a prominent hedge fund manager from New Jersey, and James S. Rubin, a private equity manager and son of Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary. The younger Mr. Rubin was also a finance director for New York during President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, and held positions at the Federal Communications Commission during the second Clinton administration.

Other former Clintonites who are raising money for Mr. Obama include Joshua L. Steiner, a private equity principal; Michael Froman, a Citigroup executive; and Brian Mathis of Provident Group. All of them are young (in their 40s) and served in senior positions in Mr. Clinton’s Treasury Department a decade ago (Mr. Froman and Mr. Mathis were friends with Mr. Obama at Harvard Law School). Another high-profile Obama fund-raiser is Earl G. Graves, the publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, who in 2000 was listed by the White House as an overnight guest of the Clintons.

The Obama campaign hopes to draw from pools that barely existed four years ago, particularly hedge fund and private-equity fund principals who only recently acquired their money and their interest in the political process.

But another strategy holds that in order to keep up with Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Johnson and his cohorts will have to succeed at poaching traditional Clinton donors.

Already, the bulk of New York’s traditional Democratic money elite — people on the level of Alan Patricof, Steven Rattner, and Hassan Nemazee — has pledged to support Mrs. Clinton.

But the drift of some New York donors, along with the switch by some former Clinton backers on the West Coast, like David Geffen, has elevated hopes among Mr. Obama’s supporters. There is no consensus among his financial supporters as to whether the feud this week over Mr. Geffen’s critical comments about the Clintons is helping or hindering their efforts. Still, several of them said privately that they had been enjoying the sparring.

“It’s important to demonstrate that Barack’s willing to hit back, though I’m not sure this is the opportunity I would’ve picked,” one said.

Mr. Kramer, the hedge fund manager, remains an admirer of Mrs. Clinton, and said he agonized over the move but was swayed partially by the grass-roots approach of the Obama campaign. “Making choices involving people you genuinely care about is harrowing,” he said. “I made the decision when I did to bring the pain to an end.”

Still, of his new endeavor, Mr. Kramer said, “It’s like the Red Sox looking for fans at Yankee Stadium.”

Mr. Johnson, 49, is aware that his taking up with Mr. Obama marks a defection from the Clintons. He was the general counsel to the Air Force for more than two years during President Clinton’s second term. Mr. Clinton’s trusted adviser, Vernon E. Jordan Jr. — an old family friend of Mr. Johnson —helped him get that job.

Mr. Johnson urged almost every person he reached by phone to look up the speech that Mr. Obama made before the Illinois Senate in October 2002. In the speech, Mr. Obama outlined his opposition to going to war in Iraq, highlighting the sharp contrast to Mrs. Clinton’s vote that year to authorize military action against Iraq.

He is working his connections, which include a 300-person master list heavily weighted with fellow lawyers, members of a black professionals fraternity to which he belongs, and veterans of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, for which he served as special counsel.

“Among the attorneys on the Ivy League side, he definitely is appealing,” Mr. Johnson said of Mr. Obama. His pitch to one fellow lawyer with whom he had previously traded calls, was this efficient:

“So, Barack.” Pause. “Sounds like all your buddies from Harvard Law are involved too.” Pause. “Have you met him before?” Pause. “The base level is $1,000.”

Although campaign-finance regulations bar individual donors from giving more than $2,300 per election to a campaign, as a “bundler” Mr. Johnson is expected to raise much more on the breadth of his Rolodex and the depth of his persuasive skills. The invitation to the March 9 event lists Mr. Johnson and his wife, along with about a dozen other couples or individuals, as gala “chairs” who have pledged to raise $100,000 — all in increments of $2,300 or less.

Despite Mr. Johnson’s considerable experience in the political sphere, participation in one of the Renaissance Weekend retreats made popular by the Clintons, and his volunteer position on the Kerry campaign, he did not until last June become a legitimate fund-raising player. He has since been sought out by candidates.

“I got a call from the Menendez Senate campaign, and they asked me to host a party with Bobbi Brown, who has the cosmetics line,” Mr. Johnson recalled (his family and Ms. Brown’s live in Montclair, N.J., a state where Robert Menendez is a senator). “Menendez got Barack and Cory Booker to do this event with us. That was when I met Barack. We raised between $300,000 and $500,000 in one day, and my name was associated with that event.”

In the months that followed, Mr. Johnson said: “John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Jim Webb, Harold Ford, they all came here. Harold Ford, he has his little entourage. He sat right there in the chair next to the TV.”

He had expected to wait for the outcome of the 2008 primaries before signing on with a candidate, but after seeing Mr. Obama hold forth at a fall book-signing on the Upper East Side, Mr. Johnson was won over.

Then, the day before Thanksgiving, Mr. Johnson received a call at home from Mr. Obama.

“He said, ‘I’m thinking about running for president. Can you not commit to anybody until I decide?’ ” Mr. Johnson said. “Now, we really hit it off. I said, ‘Barack, I’m with you.’ ”

"Obama ridicules Cheney over comments on Britain and Iraq"

AP:

Obama, speaking at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision this week to withdraw 1,600 troops is a recognition that Iraq's problems can't be solved militarily.

"Now if Tony Blair can understand that, than why can't George Bush and Dick Cheney understand that?" Obama asked thousands of supporters who gathered in the rain to hear him. "In fact, Dick Cheney said this is all part of the plan (and) it was a good thing that Tony Blair was withdrawing, even as the administration is preparing to put 20,000 more of our young men and women in.

"Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign signs over the heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing, you know that you've probably got some big problems."

A spokeswoman for Cheney, traveling with him in Australia, said they had no comment on Obama's remarks.

Cheney told ABC News earlier this week that Blair's announcement was good news, calling it an affirmation that parts of Iraq have been stabilized.

Obama's Austin appearance was part of a campaign swing across the country to raise money for his two-week old candidacy and build his reputation nationally.

While in Texas, Obama raised money in Houston Thursday night, where he said he'd like to see an end to the "tit-for-tat" that dominates politics.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns fired off dueling press releases this week over a top Hollywood donor who was a supporter of Bill Clinton but is backing Obama in this race.

Obama told the Austin crowd that they should try to recruit their friends to support his campaign. "I want you to tell them, 'It's time for you to turn off the TV and stop playing GameBoy,'" Obama said. "We've got work to do."

Tickets to the rally were free, but Obama asked the attendees to give even $5 or $10. "I don't want to have to raise money in Hollywood all the time," he said.

"Barack Obama Rallies The Troops In Austin" (with video)

KEYETV.com with (video, 45:00):

AUSTIN Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama is in Austin, campaigning for the white house. The Illinois senator has been compared to John F. Kennedy and Tiger Woods.

Obama is on a three city tour, with Austin as his second stop. Friday, the presidential candidate addressed about 10,000 supporters at Auditorium Shores.

Obama is a rock star on the stage of presidential politics, appealing to excited fans from the twentysomethings to those much older.

“Barack Obama is so inspirational, he's so young and new,” said Marlana Salmon, an Obama supporter from Corpus Christi. “I've love him because he was against the war from the beginning. So, he's just a great, new feel for the government."

He's not the first African American to run for president, but his early bid for the White House has become a political phenomenon.

The lure of Obama-mania is contagiously sweeping the country and shaking up national politics wherever he goes.

Obama is a first term United States senator from Illinois. He was born to interracial parents. His mother is white and his father is black.

The last presidential hopeful to draw this many potential voters on Auditorium Shores was President Ronald Reagan 23 years ago.

"Obama Says He Wants End to 'Tit-For-Tat'

AP (Nedra Pickler):

Fresh off a spat with rival Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he'd like to see an end to the "tit-for-tat" that dominates politics.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns fired off dueling press releases this week over a top Hollywood donor who was a supporter of Bill Clinton but is backing Obama in this race.

The Clinton campaign demanded that Obama return DreamWorks studio co-founder David Geffen's money after Geffen criticized the Clintons as dishonest, among other things. Obama declined, and his spokesman criticized Clinton in return for accepting the support of a South Carolina lawmaker who said Obama can't win because he's black.

Obama told donors at a Houston fundraiser Thursday night that the nation will remain at a standstill "if we continue to engage in small and divisive politics and tit-for-tat."

"Our country is at a crossroads right now," he said, citing problems in Iraq and domestically with education, energy and health care. "It's not as if we don't know what the solutions are. What's missing is the inability of our leadership to develop consensus."

Obama was speaking to about 300 people gathered at the Communication Workers of America union hall. Although the event was advertised as requiring a minimum $100 contribution, lower amounts were accepted at the door.

The campaign would not say how much Obama raised at the event. He also visited St. Louis earlier in the day to raise money.

Obama was scheduled to speak Friday at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas. More than 10,000 people have signed up for free tickets on Obama's Web site, the campaign said.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Rep. Diane Watson:

Senator Barack Obama's first public appearance in Los Angeles since he announced his candidacy for President is both symbolic and inspirational.

Symbolic in that he held his Los Angeles rally at the predominantly African American Dorsey High School, also my alma mater. Inspirational because he is a fresh face and spirit that has seized the conscience of America.
Obama's candidacy embodies hope for a new direction at a time when many Americans have grown disillusioned with their declining living standard at home and the nation's diminished image abroad. His presence renews belief in America's goals and principals, for its historical yearning for transcendence and exceptionalism.

The appearance carries additional symbolism. Obama is the product of an African father and a white American mother. He exemplifies the emerging blended America, an America that is increasingly multiracial and multi-ethnic. California and greater Los Angeles are ground zero for the new American melting pot and changing face of America.

Obama's candidacy is not a blip, but a force to be reckoned with. It showcases a future where America strives to evolve to its truest meaning of peace, justice, equality, and opportunity for all.

Obama is demonstrating that he is ready to lead our nation in a new and different direction. The only question remains: is America ready for Barack?

"Obama's `Netroots' Take On Clinton's Big Bundlers in 2008 Race"

Bloomberg:

About 300 backers of Illinois Senator Barack Obama gathered in Dallas this week to boost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The candidate was nowhere in sight.

He didn't need to be. The group, with no help from the Obama campaign, organized the Feb. 19 event on its own through the Web site Meetup.com.

The impromptu rally is exactly what Obama's campaign is counting on to help counter the fundraising prowess of the party's front-runner, Senator Hillary Clinton. Hearing about the event, at the Wyndham Dallas North hotel, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe called in and someone held a cell phone to a microphone so he could address the crowd.

``Obama has some real advantages because he is fresh and he is new and he is appealing to young people,'' said Joe Trippi, who ran former Vermont Governor Howard Dean's Democratic primary campaign in 2004. Those attributes ``work particularly well in terms of Internet fundraising,'' said Fred Wertheimer, president of the Washington watchdog group Democracy 21.

Obama, 45, is relying on a grassroots effort aimed at online activists -- what political operatives call a ``netroots'' strategy -- to help him compete in a primary race that may come with an entry fee of $100 million. Clinton, 59, has already locked up many of the top Democratic business leaders and activists known as ``bundlers'' who can use their networks to gather maximum contributions from individuals.

A Million People

``A million people aren't coming to a $100-a-plate dinner tomorrow; a million people could go to the Internet tomorrow and give Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton $100,'' said Trippi, author of ``The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything.''

The stakes are higher than ever before as many presidential candidates decide to forgo the system of public financing of campaigns, and the spending limits it entails. Analysts expect each of the major party candidates eventually to raise $500 million for the November 2008 election.

Since the first fundraising reports won't be filed until April, there's little evidence so far about the effectiveness of the netroots strategy. The two most active candidates on ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising Web site, are former vice presidential nominee John Edwards, who has brought in more than $900,000, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has raised about $286,000 on the site.

Generating Enthusiasm

Obama is also getting help from Internet sites such as Facebook that generate enthusiasm among young people. During a stop in California this week, he asked supporters to sign up on his campaign Web site and give as little as $5 to $10.

More than 30,000 people have created profiles and started networking with supporters on Obama's site, spokesman Bill Burton said. Some 2,800 people have founded grassroots groups and 5,200 have started blogs to chronicle their experiences with the campaign.

``The best way to sustain momentum is to ensure that it's not just about you and that there are a lot of people who are invested and feel ownership,'' Obama said in an interview this month.

Clinton, who represents New York, isn't about to concede the Internet. Like Obama, she announced her interest in the race with a Web video and said almost 150,000 people signed up on her site in the first week.

Grassroots Support

Clinton also enlisted her husband, former President Bill Clinton. This week, he sent an e-mail asking for help raising $1 million in one week to showcase her grassroots support. ``Let's make this a week when we demonstrate that her campaign is strong,'' the former president said.

As of early evening Washington time last night, the appeal had raised more than $320,000, according to Clinton's Web site.

Yet Senator Clinton's position as the candidate with the strong party ties and big-bundler donor base doesn't offer an automatic appeal to Internet activists.

``If you assume that the netroots are anti-establishment, she has the most difficult case to make,'' said James Bonham, former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The power of the Internet became evident when Dean used it to bring in more than half of the $41 million he raised in 2003, Trippi said. That helped Dean become the early front-runner for the presidential nomination.

Deep Pockets

Senator John Kerry raised about $80 million on the Internet. That helped him compete with the deep pockets of President George W. Bush, who in 2000 became the first party nominee to raise $100 million for a primary campaign, thanks to big-money bundlers.

Both Bush and Kerry rejected federal funds in the 2004 primary campaign, allowing them to bypass spending limits. This time, candidates are skipping public financing altogether, which allows them to solicit the maximum $4,600 individual contribution for both the primary and general elections, almost five times the $1,000 that most candidates could get in 2000.

``The sky's the limit in terms of how much money you can spend,'' said Michael Toner, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

While Clinton has the advantage among big bundlers, Obama also has major players on his side, including movie producer David Geffen, who helped raise more than $1 million at an event this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Angry Exchanges

Geffen touched off angry exchanges between the campaigns when he told a New York Times columnist that the Clintons lie ``with such ease.'' The Clinton campaign called for Obama to return the money Geffen raised and denounce his comments, prompting Obama's campaign to point out that the Clintons had no problem with Geffen when he was raising money for them.

The wrangling underscored just how intense the battle has become almost a year before the first votes are cast and how much is at stake by getting a fundraising edge. While Bush asked his top contributors to bring in $100,000 each in 2000, Clinton is asking hers to collect as much as $1 million.

Clinton counts top Democratic fundraisers including Wall Street financiers Hassan Nemazee and Marc Lasry among her supporters. On the West Coast, she's won over media executive Haim Saban and film producer Stephen Bing, who were two of the top three Democratic donors in 2002, before unlimited contributions to the party were banned. And she's ramping up the pressure on fundraisers quickly.

``I went in having committed to raise $100,000,'' said Heather Podesta, a Washington lobbyist who attended a Feb. 7 meeting for ``Hillraisers'' in Washington. ``I walked out and committed to raise 2 1/2 times that amount.''

"Statehouse Yields Clues to Obama"

Wall Street Journal:

Sharp Elbows of Illinois Politics Taught Lessons In Art of Compromise--SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- As an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama was a leader in helping to tighten state ethics laws -- up to a point. When a 2003 package seemed doomed in the Senate's final hours -- with his Democratic leader among the foes -- he left the chamber to tell advocates there was nothing more he could do.

"He wasn't going to stand on the desk and pound his shoe," recalls Cynthia Canary, director of the nonpartisan Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, and an admirer. "Barack is a political realist. You may know that in his heart he feels strongly, but he'll only go so far." Yet a compromise was salvaged, she adds, and Mr. Obama helped to toughen it in subsequent legislative sessions.

The accomplishment was emblematic of the picture that emerges of the eight years Mr. Obama spent here: of a lawmaker of lofty, liberal rhetoric who nonetheless pragmatically accepted bipartisan compromises that won over foes -- and sometimes left supporters dissatisfied.

Now that he is running as a presidential candidate, after just two years in the U.S. Senate, most clues about what style of politics he would bring to the White House are here in Illinois's Statehouse.

Mr. Obama wrote in his recent, best-selling memoir that it was in Springfield that he learned "how the game had come to be played" between Democrats and Republicans: "I understood politics as a full-contact sport, and minded neither the sharp elbows nor the occasional blindside hit." The Obama campaign's tangle this week with that of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton shows a willingness to engage in intraparty spats, as well.

Yet he also wrote that through his state Senate years he "clung to the notion that politics could be different," less combative, more bipartisan. He has put that notion at the heart of his presidential bid.

Illinois Republicans recall Mr. Obama as a committed liberal of no singular achievements, yet one they could work with to pass ethics, welfare and death-penalty revisions. "He's unique in his ability to deal with extremely complex issues, to reach across the aisle and to deal with diverse people," says Republican state Sen. Kirk Dillard. "If he surrounds himself with good people, I wouldn't lose any sleep with him as my president."

As for sharp elbows, the scraps for which Mr. Obama is remembered -- including near-fisticuffs once on the Senate floor -- were with fellow black Democrats, some of whom were resentful of his ambitions and his successes.

In Mr. Obama's first term, in 1997-98, he joined with Mr. Dillard to pass Illinois's first ethics package in a quarter-century, and with Republican state Sen. Dave Syverson, then chairman of a health and human services committee, to overhaul the state's welfare law. Those earlier ethics overhauls grew out of a proposal from the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, an Illinois Democrat, for a four-member task force -- one representative of each party in the Illinois House and Senate -- to forge a compromise. Mr. Dillard represented Senate Republicans. Senate Democratic leader Emil Jones, like Mr. Obama an African-American from Chicago, picked the young freshman on the advice of former federal judge Abner Mikva, who had known Mr. Obama as a constitutional-law teacher at the University of Chicago.

The panel's recommendations didn't go so far as ethics-revamp advocates wanted. To ease passage, for example, its ban on lawmakers' personal use of campaign funds exempted existing accounts. Still, Mr. Obama had a hard sell in Senate Democrats' caucuses. "He was getting so beat up by the members, sometimes I felt sorry for him," recalls Mr. Jones, who became his mentor. "He would just listen to them, and then explain the reason why this particular issue was before us."

When the legislature revisited the ethics issue in 2003, Mr. Jones was among those who resisted changes Mr. Obama promoted. "He wouldn't buck Emil Jones," Ms. Canary said. The Senate and House agreed to a weaker bill.

Likewise, Mr. Syverson says the welfare-overhaul compromise he cosponsored with Mr. Obama riled both parties. "He took heat from some liberal groups" for welfare limits, Mr. Syverson says, "but I took heat from conservative groups," for the child-care and health-care aid to those who moved from welfare to work. When Democrats won a majority in 2003, for Mr. Obama's final two years, he succeeded Mr. Syverson as the health panel's chairman. Yet on his most ambitious initiative, for universal health-care coverage, the best he could do was pass a measure providing for a study.

On the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Obama wanted to co-sponsor Democratic Chairman John Cullerton's top initiative, a highway-safety measure allowing police to stop vehicles in which occupants weren't wearing seat belts. At the time, nonuse couldn't be the primary reason for stopping drivers.

But Mr. Jones objected. The Senate leader said a tougher seat-belt law would give police another ruse for racial profiling -- the practice of stopping and searching minority drivers for little reason. "Barack said, 'Then let's do a racial profiling law,' " Mr. Cullerton recalls.

Mr. Obama and other Democrats had previously proposed antiprofiling bills, which would require police to keep data on the race of those they stopped. Police groups always were opposed. But they wanted a seat-belt law. Senators say Mr. Obama negotiated changes to the racial-profiling measure that allowed the police to remain neutral. Both bills were passed.

Meanwhile, the legislature in 2003 was revamping death-penalty laws after evidence of numerous wrongful convictions. Mr. Obama wanted to mandate videotaping of interrogations of murder suspects, to guard against coerced confessions. Prosecutors and many Republicans were opposed, particularly to the prospect that unrecorded confessions would be inadmissible in court. They recall Mr. Obama's spending hours in negotiations on compromises, such as allowing for equipment failure and providing for judges' discretion. "Some people say the exemptions are too broad," Mr. Cullerton says, "but that's what you have to do to pass laws."

The credit that went to Mr. Obama for the racial-profiling and videotaping measures stoked tensions among black colleagues who had sponsored similar proposals only to see Mr. Jones promote his protégé's efforts. One was state Sen. Rickey "Hollywood" Hendon, an outspoken Democrat, who once had to be separated from Mr. Obama in the Senate after confronting him for reasons that witnesses don't recall and Mr. Hendon won't discuss.

Mr. Hendon complained that he felt like the football player who had run 99 yards, only to see the halfback plunge the final yard for the touchdown and the credit. Earlier this month, he was outside the Old State Capitol in the cold, lending support as Mr. Obama announced his presidential candidacy.