Rising Star

by David Garrow

  With Michelle, Malia, and Sasha on board and a fifteen-passenger van filled with reporters following behind, the RV left Hyde Park for an eighty-mile drive to Ottawa, in Democrat-rich LaSalle County. Posedel had expected the rapid-fire small-town stops to draw approximately one hundred people each, but in Ottawa a crowd of more than five hundred welcomed Barack. Then it was on to Granville, then DePue, and there were another five hundred people in Kewanee, followed by Monmouth and Oquawka. The crowd of hundreds there was “electrified and energized” by the late-afternoon appearance of “a rising star,” who “was swamped by those seeking autographs.” In Moline, more than three hundred people crowded into Posedel and girlfriend Anita Decker’s backyard before the RV headed back eastward to overnight in DeKalb. At 9:00 A.M. Sunday morning, fourteen hundred people awaited Barack in a DeKalb park, even in ninety-degree heat. Then it was on to Marengo, Belvidere, and Rockford, where a crowd of a thousand gathered in a riverfront park. Barack took the time to greet hundreds of people, which meant that by Freeport the RV was running an hour late. In Galena, Malia and Sasha finally got their promised ice cream before the tour made Sunday’s seventh and last stop in Mount Carroll.

  Tribune reporter David Mendell felt that “Obama fever” had given the tour “the feel of a coronation.” Barack hesitated to articulate his own feelings about it. “This is all so, well, interesting. But it’s all so ephemeral,” he told Mendell. “I don’t know how this plays out, but there is definitely a novelty aspect to it all.” But “it can’t stay white hot like it is right now.” Both the Boston experience and now people’s reactions across central Illinois left Michelle thinking about Barack’s security. “You have to achieve a balance between looking out for his safety and not looking like he is afraid of the community he is serving.” They began Monday in Rock Falls, then Dixon, Rochelle, Lacon, Pekin, Normal, and Clinton. “Barack seems to become energized at every stop by the people that he meets,” young press assistant Tommy Vietor blogged, but by Monday’s final stop at a $100-per-person Danville fund-raiser that drew seven hundred, Barack was ninety minutes late.

  Tuesday, day 4, again featured what Vietor called a “fast and furious” pace, beginning at 8:30 A.M. in Champaign. Local state representative Naomi Jakobsson introduced Barack as “Illinois’s rising star,” and at the day’s second stop, in Tuscola, retired farmer Boyd Stenger told Barack, “You need to run for president in the next election.” When Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dave McKinney remarked to Barack about “the stunning amount of positive press” he was getting, Barack’s cool reply was “Don’t jinx me.” They forged on to Mattoon, Neoga, Mount Vernon, Fairfield, Mount Carmel, Lawrenceville, and Olney, where five hundred people greeted Barack even though he was more than an hour late. Tuesday’s tenth and final stop was Salem, where another crowd of five hundred awaited. Wednesday was Barack’s forty-third birthday, and it featured a stop in Taylorville before the RV turned northeastward and headed back toward Chicagoland. A $50-per-person evening birthday party at the Matteson Holiday Inn featured Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. serenading Barack with “Happy Birthday” before Barack praised Jackson and Senate president Emil Jones Jr. as his “two rocks of Gibraltar.” As the celebration wore down, Barack turned to tour architect Jeremiah Posedel. “You did a great job, but don’t ever fucking do that to me again!”84

  While Barack was traversing central Illinois’s small towns, David Axelrod and John Kupper had been revising the general election plan. “Barack could spend not a penny on advertising and still win,” they noted, but “Barack remains relatively unknown,” so his newfound national fame created a new hurdle. “We need to meet and exceed expectations. A 55–45 win in November will now be read as a disappointing showing. . . . We need to drive up Barack’s margin as high as we reasonably can to cement his standing—both state-wide and nationally—and help discourage a more credible challenger six years from now.” But given how long Barack had gone without an opponent, the earlier game plan of spending more than $8 million on paid media could be scaled back to “about half that amount, with the focus on Downstate.”

  The weeks since Jack Ryan’s withdrawal had been quiet for those Obama staffers who did not go to Boston or have to cope with the postconvention deluge, and policy director Amanda Fuchs had used the time to produce a comprehensive “Defensive Research Book” on Barack’s Springfield record. “Soft on crime” was the top vulnerability, but Amanda’s desire to have a long, comprehensive interview with Barack about his life’s record beyond the state legislature was repeatedly brushed aside by the candidate and David Axelrod.

  By the first week of August, Illinois Republicans’ desperation to find a plausible stand-in candidate reached new depths as the nineteen-member State Central Committee began interviewing a motley collection of applicants. Rockford state senator Dave Syverson had the odd idea of asking Alan Keyes, an outspoken African American abortion opponent who in 1988 and 1992 had lost Senate races in his home state of Maryland before launching quixotic presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. Keyes agreed to apply, and flew to Chicago on August 3. Calling Barack “a radical ideologue,” Keyes interviewed with the Republican committee for ninety minutes on August 4 and garnered two-thirds support. Keyes requested several days to decide, during which time Barack told the Tribune, “I think he’ll need to explain how he can best represent the people of Illinois, not having ever lived here.” Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller dismissed Keyes as “an arrogant blowhard,” and the Tribune discovered that Keyes had $524,000 in unpaid debts from his two presidential quests plus a $7,400 income tax lien he quickly settled.

  Barack and his family were headed to Canada to see his sister Maya, her husband Konrad, and their new baby Suhaila, who were visiting Konrad’s parents in Burlington, Ontario. A visit to nearby Niagara Falls was de rigueur, and while Barack was enjoying a weekend away from politics, Alan Keyes returned to Chicago to accept the Republican nomination before a small crowd at a suburban restaurant. Reading Monday’s news stories on his return, Barack told the Tribune that Keyes “did not say a word about jobs, he didn’t say a word about health care—the two issues that when I travel around the state people seem to be talking about all the time.”

  Barack joked that his old offer of six debates with Jack Ryan was a “special for in-state residents,” but his campaign’s insistence that three face-offs with Keyes in the fall would be more than enough met with criticism from Chicago editorialists. With a CBS Chicago poll showing Barack leading Keyes 67–28, and the Chicago Defender denouncing Keyes as “a political hit man” intent on “a character assassination campaign,” Barack’s desire to minimize his personal exposure made sense. Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller wrote that Republicans hoped to keep Barack “pinned down in Illinois” for the fall, but by refusing six debates, Barack had been “knocked off his game for the first time this year.” Miller noted that “Obama isn’t accustomed to negative publicity, to put it mildly,” and wondered how well Barack would cope with the rhetorical onslaught everyone expected from Keyes, who already had made “the ‘rock star’ frontrunner look like a mope.”

  Suburban Daily Herald political writer Eric Krol noted that Barack “has gone out of his way to sound more like a moderate since the March primary.” Appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air, Barack predicted that “people are just weary of . . . slash-and-burn politics that demonizes whoever doesn’t agree with you.” Yet “ruthless” and “cynical” political professionals stoked such tactics, because they have “a monetary stake in the outcomes.” At Saturday’s annual Bud Billiken Parade in Bronzeville, Barack, Michelle, and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. rode on top of a float. “Obama was treated to a king’s welcome” on account of his “super celebrity status,” wrote the Tribune’s David Mendell, while the Defender declared that a “serene” Barack “looked more like a film star than a senatorial candidate.” In contrast, when Alan Keyes appeared, he was met with cries of “Go back to Maryland!” and he “was loudly booed by the crowd.” When the parade M
C reprimanded the crowd, “the disapproval grew louder and was taken over by chanting Obama’s name.”

  The next morning Barack and Keyes appeared separately on ABC’s This Week, with host George Stephanopoulos stating that at the DNC, Barack “convinced a lot of those delegates that he’s got the makings of a future president.” Barack predicted that “there are going to be some trying moments” in facing off against Keyes, and he understood Republicans wanted to “bloody me up a little bit before I got to Washington.” When Stephanopoulos asked Barack about Keyes’s position “that life begins at conception,” Barack parried. “Well, I as a Christian might agree with that, but if I agree with that it’s based on a religious premise, and not one that I think is subject to scientific proof.” Barack added that Democrats err if they believe “that only secularism could express tolerance,” because “part of my job as a Christian is to recognize that I may not always be right, that God doesn’t speak to me alone.”

  At midday Sunday, Barack headed to Rogers Park for the annual Indian Independence Day Parade. Also on the northwest corner of Devon and Western Avenues was Alan Keyes, whose wife Jocelyn was Indian American. Meeting for the first time, Barack approached his opponent to shake hands. Keyes made some remark about the number of debates, and Barack shot back, “I guarantee we’re going to debate, because you’ve been talking a lot.” Keyes replied that “I have the very bad habit of telling the truth,” then adding that “the sad truth of the matter is, one test of a candidate, I believe, is that you say what you mean and mean what you say.” Barack replied, “I always do.”

  Sun-Times reporter Natasha Korecki stood close by as the two men “frequently interrupted each other, continuing to grasp hands as they exchanged barbs only inches from the other’s face.” Barack told Keyes, “Don’t just go and keep on talking. You’ve got to do a little listening. You’re not a very good listener.” Finally they parted, with Barack telling a Tribune journalist that Keyes’s “entire premise is that people that don’t share his convictions are bad people.” Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller wrote that “the alleged rock star lost his famously unflappable cool” when confronted by Keyes in the flesh. “Both men shouting at each other and pointing fingers” was “par for the course for Keyes” but “not a good thing at all for Senator Suave,” who “needs to get his act together.” Privately, David Axelrod agreed, reprimanding Barack for a scene that left Axelrod “shocked” by his candidate’s behavior. Barack replied, “I just wasn’t going to let him punk me.”

  Following campaign stops in Peoria and Decatur, Barack “was greeted with wild enthusiasm at every appearance” when he arrived at the huge Illinois State Fair in Springfield on what was nominally “Governor’s Day.” “The star of the day was Obama, not Gov. Rod Blagojevich,” the Tribune stated, with Barack’s Senate buddy Denny Jacobs declaring, “it’s an Obamafest!” As if any further evidence was needed, several days later a Tribune poll showed Barack with a 65 to 24 percent statewide lead over Keyes. Barack’s favorable-to-unfavorable margin was 62 to 14, with 24 percent uncertain. Regarding Keyes’s signature issue, only 28 percent of voters wanted greater restrictions on abortion. In contrast, 56 percent said Jack Ryan should not have dropped out, and, of all people in Illinois, Rod McCulloch now agreed with them. “Honestly, if I’d have known they were going to bring in Alan Keyes, I might have kept my mouth shut, because an October surprise [about Ryan] would have been better than Alan Keyes.”85

  Barack and his family slipped out of Chicago for a late-August vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, staying with Valerie Jarrett at her home in Oak Bluffs, long a summer destination for privileged African Americans. Barack made a surprise appearance at a forum in an Edgartown church, but otherwise relaxed, playing golf with Chicago friend Allison Davis. After going out to jog one morning, he returned to Jarrett’s with what she called “a look of complete disbelief on his face. ‘You aren’t going to believe what happened to me,’ he said. ‘A guy took my picture as I jogged by.’”

  While Barack was away, his campaign team debuted his first general election TV ad in downstate markets from Rockford to Springfield. Focused on his REAL USA Corporations bill, it featured Barack stating, “I came to Illinois nineteen years ago to work in a community torn apart by the closing of a steel plant.” Saying, “we need some common sense,” Barack called for ending “tax breaks for corporations who move job overseas,” giving them instead to “companies who create jobs here.” At the same time, Paul Harstad conducted the campaign’s second general election poll, focusing particularly on downstate voters and Republican women in the Chicago media market. Only 62 percent of respondents knew about Barack’s DNC speech, and while his lead over Keyes was a whopping 64–20, a hypothetical pairing of Barack versus former governor Jim Edgar showed Barack with just a modest 49–40 percent advantage.

  Once Barack returned, he made a quick trip to Birmingham, Alabama, for a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser at the Civil Rights Institute, and afterward he walked across 6th Avenue North to visit Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. “Let’s say a little prayer, because I believe in the power of prayer,” Barack told pastor Rev. Arthur Price. Back in Chicago, his consultants met to absorb Harstad’s polling results and to discuss how Barack could be deployed nationally to help raise money for Democratic Senate candidates who were facing tougher races than his, particularly minority leader Tom Daschle. At the same time, David Axelrod, John Kupper, and David Plouffe gave Barack a twelve-page “Transition” memo outlining what he should do after he won election to the Senate on November 2. “You are permitted to hire two transition staff to work from the time of your election until your swearing-in,” and they expressly recommended Robert Gibbs as “a solid choice” to remain as Barack’s communications director. In addition, Daschle’s chief of staff, Pete Rouse, was “someone with whom you should develop a peer relationship.” Noting “the galvanizing national presence you created through your keynote address,” Barack’s team said he needed to formulate his own policy agenda, and “one issue we’d suggest you focus on is healthcare reform.”

  Making his first campaign swing through Metro East since the DNC, Barack told a mostly black crowd at East St. Louis’s Mount Zion Baptist Church that visiting the Birmingham church where four young girls had been killed in a 1963 Klan bombing had put his newfound fame in perspective. “It’s easy to get swept up in the hoopla, to read your name in the papers and to see yourself on TV. And all of that is fun. But standing in that church in Birmingham, Alabama, I realized and I reminded myself that the reason you get into public service is not for yourself. It’s not about your family. It’s not about your vanity. It’s not about your ambition. If you want to be first, you have to be first in service.”

  At his next appearance, before an almost entirely white crowd at a Waterloo VFW hall, Barack joked about his DNC speech. “My wife, I asked her for a little support. She said, ‘Don’t screw it up.’” That afternoon in Benton, Barack spoke frankly about his opponent. “I don’t just want to win, I want to give this guy who is running against me a spanking. The reason I do is because he exemplifies the kind of scorched-earth, slash-and-burn negative campaign that has become the custom in Washington, and it is the reason why we can’t get anything done. Ordinary people just don’t act like that, they don’t call people names all the time.”

  Responding to downstate reporters’ questions, Barack measured his remarks accordingly. “On some issues I’m quite conservative. I believe in the death penalty. I believe that there is an important place for the Second Amendment in this state. I believe that it is important that we don’t think we can solve all our problems with government programs. I’ve said that publicly and repeatedly, and I’ve voted in that fashion.” Barack called abortion “a deeply difficult moral issue” and declared, “I’m not in favor of gay marriage.” He remained firmly critical of the Patriot Act, stating that “we have to make sure that we don’t get so swept up in our fears that we throw overboard those constitutional protections tha
t make this country so special.”

  Appearing before the Rock Island County NAACP on Labor Day, Barack was greeted “more like he was a rock star than a politician,” the Quad-City Times reported. Barack stressed that “I wouldn’t be standing here today if it were not for Lane Evans,” the local congressman who early on had endorsed Barack. In Chicago, Alan Keyes called a press conference to criticize Barack’s “spanking” remark, but made bigger headlines by proclaiming that “Christ would not vote for Barack Obama” because of abortion. Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller noted Keyes’s “continuing bizarre behavior,” but Barack calmly told Springfield reporters that “I leave it up to God to judge how good of a Christian I’m going to be. I leave it up to the voters to judge how good of a U.S. senator I’m going to be. I don’t concern myself too much with Mr. Keyes’s judgment on either matter,” and “I will leave Mr. Keyes to the theological speculations. My job is to focus on the issues the voters care about: jobs, health care, education.”86

  Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet publicly castigated Barack’s “manipulative, cagey campaign” for “hiding practically all of Obama’s out-of-state treks” to fund-raisers from the press. Barack also was attending a ramped-up schedule of Chicagoland fund-raisers, such as a Tuesday-evening one at Raghuveer Nayak’s home in Oak Brook. Michael Parham, Jeff Cummings’s attorney friend who had attended one of Barack’s earliest state Senate fund-raisers before leaving Chicago for Seattle, offered to have his RealNetworks colleagues host a fund-raiser, and Barack called to confirm. “When are we going to get you back to Chicago?” he asked. “You know, your governor wants me to come right now,” Parham replied. “For what?” Barack asked. “To be his general counsel,” Michael said. “Without skipping a beat,” Barack forcefully declared, “Don’t do it. Don’t take that job. Stay away from him. You don’t need him. Don’t take that job.” Parham was taken aback by Barack’s “instinctual reaction,” but followed his advice.