Barack Obama’s Rise from Political Obscurity

It is hard to believe that a first-term Junior Senator from the State of Illinois is only one political Convention and four months away from being elected as the forty-fourth President of the United States. There aren’t enough superlatives and accolades to describe this historic ascent, not only in terms of the racial significance but perhaps just as importantly, in terms of fundraising. Barack Obama beat out one of the most influential power-couple in modern political memory and ‘Super Stars’ of the Democratic Party, Bill and Hillary Rodham-Clinton. What it took the Clinton’s over 35 years of public service to accomplish, first as then Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas and two terms of President, and Hillary as First Lady of Arkansas and First Lady of the United States in addition to both the Clinton’s advocacy in behalf of Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, HealthCare (Hillary), etc., Senator Obama all but eclipsed and made to look as also-rans by raising more money during the Primaries and Caucuses.

This is all the more amazing because in order to be that successful, you have to plan ahead for quite some time and have the grassroots support and teams of volunteers in place to do all the canvassing of neighborhoods, making telephone calls to voters, registering non-voters, planning the logistics of setting up campaign offices, hiring staff and volunteers, placing campaign ads, and of course, getting the money from donors. The phenomenal success of the Obama campaign makes one think that this decision to run for the Presidency was not made on a whim because it seems they hit the ground running and knew exactly what they were doing. Through use of the Internet, thousands of donors could make unlimited small donations, and one could ask how could someone who is quite literally from outside the “mainstream” of political, social, and economic power in modern America able to amass a campaign war chest of approximately three hundred million dollars?

There has to be more to it than Senator Obama surrounding himself with young, college-educated, tech-savvy, mostly White, DOT.com millionaires. Surprisingly, there might be some old money behind this as well because no neophyte would have the ‘know how’ and young people could not have put this thing together so well; no matter how talented they might be. No, some experienced veterans were behind this thing from the very beginning and although it may not matter in the long run, it would be naïve to believe that Senator Obama’s meteoric rise to National and International recognition is the result of having written his groundbreaking best-selling book, “The Audacity of Hope.” What has gotten the Senator this far in his “Election Quest” just might be by ‘the same old nasty’; which he has managed to finesse and clean up in such a way that it appears to have changed to look decent, honorable, and different.

Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
July 29, 2008