Five obstacles that could devour Obama.(News)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), February, 2007 | by Krol, Eric

Byline: Eric Krol Daily Herald Political Writer SPRINGFIELD - When Sen. Barack Obama formally jumped into the 2008 presidential race Saturday, he delivered his speech about a hundred feet from a rather ominous landmark. In the Old State Capitol plaza hangs a plaque denoting the place from which the Donner Party set out from Springfield in 1846.

The expedition to California became infamous when disaster struck and some members of the party resorted to cannibalism. As Obama seeks the nation's highest office, he's hoping to avoid a similar political fate. After all, backbiting both overt and subtle often dominates a presidential primary in which fresh faces routinely are devoured. For the Donners, the big obstacle was a major snowstorm in Nevada as they took...