Barack Obama: new political star attracts national attention

Ebony, Nov, 2004 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

IN his father's native language, the name means "Blessed." In Hebrew, it means flash of lightning. In English, the name will soon mean United States Senator.

Barack Obama is heavily favored to become the country's only Black Senator in November and only the third Black United States Senator since Reconstruction. At press time, Obama enjoyed a wide lead in the Illinois polls over the Republican draftee candidate Alan Keyes. And for Obama, an Illinois state senator, it was 15 years of labor in the vineyards that fueled his "overnight" success.

Obama, 43, is a community organizer, a civil rights attorney and a state senator, who fought and won a tough primary campaign, beating a wide and varied field of party favorites.

His powerful keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last summer made him into a reluctant rock star and left him bemused by his sudden appeal.

"I didn't realize that the speech would strike the chord that it did," he says, in an interview at his comfortable South Side Chicago home filled with books and African artifacts. "I think part of it is that people are hungry for a sense of authenticity. All I was really trying to do was describe what I was hearing on the campaign trail, the stories of the hopes, fears and struggles of what ordinary people are going through every day. In the speech people heard themselves and I think that made them respond."

The response was not only on this side of the ocean. In his father's Kenya, "Obamania" has taken over the African nation. Reporters have descended on the small East African village where Obama's 80-plus grandmother still lives in a tin-roof hut. Kenyan babies are being called Obama and the local barley beer also carries his name.

He looks slightly embarrassed at all the fuss. "My grandmother still lives in a small village there and she really hasn't changed her life," he says. "I'm looking forward to going back. For cave dwellers and others without access to media and who don't know Barack Obama's story, here is the Cliff Notes version: He is the son of an African father and a White American mother, both deceased. He was born in Honolulu and also lived in Indonesia. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and a specialty in international relations. He worked as a community organizer in some of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, helping church groups create job training programs, reform area schools and improve city services. He went on to Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude and served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was elected an Illinois state legislator in 1997. As late as January of this year, he was still a senior lecturer specializing in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife Michelle, who is the director of community affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals, have two young daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha). His family is very important to him. And he says that being away from them is the toughest part of campaigning. "I miss them terribly and miss Michelle terribly," he says. "I'm just blessed that Michelle is so good with the children and so well organized that she's really been able to take care of home base."

On the campaign trail Obama calls the pragmatic Michelle his "no-nonsense" wife. And indeed, the tall and attractive, levelheaded lawyer he married 12 years ago has her eyes firmly fixed on her family. "We have little kids who keep you focused on their needs," she says. She says her husband's new rock star status is "a trip" because he has not changed as a person. "It's more of a sociological interest of how fame is created than how we deal with it. Our priority is family."

Seated next to her husband on the sofa, she shares an easy lighthearted banter with him. When the reporter asks if they want their daughters to go into politics, Obama leans forward quickly and says, "Let me answer first, because my answer will be shorter than hers!"

For the record both would encourage their girls to pursue their interests. Although they would approach the issue in different ways.

Obama's Chicago pastor, the noted Jeremiah A. Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ, says that part of what makes Obama so special is that he is a family man. "His wife and his daughters come before his political career and that is crucial in a time when families are falling apart," Wright says.

A recent Sunday campaign day began at church for the Obama family. The politician, with his well-thumbed Bible in hand, greeted worshippers before service, who did not pay undue attention to the family at worship. They were obviously not strangers, and as one member told a visitor: "They'll be back next week."

Dr. Wright, who married Michelle and Barack and dedicated both of their daughters, says Obama "takes his faith seriously, but he does not mount soap boxes or try to force his beliefs upon others," Wright adds. "Especially is this the case when it comes to matters of public policy. The 'public' implies that there are people of many faiths in community and Barack respects the beliefs of others--even when they differ from his own."