Obama learned political ropes in bare-knuckled Chicago

By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers
CHICAGO — As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic nomination for president in Denver on Thursday, the short version of his unusual life story often leaves out some important points.

The condensed version goes something like this: He's biracial, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia by a white mother and her parents; and he hardly knew his Kenyan father, who'd left the family when Obama was 2 years old.

He's the Chicago transplant who became a community organizer and a Christian. He's the Harvard Law graduate who returned to Chicago to marry another Harvard Law grad. He's the idealist whose dedication to social justice, health care, ethics and racial unity led him to politics.

What this version omits is that throughout those experiences, Obama also was ambitious, pragmatic and strategic. He sought guidance from mentors while managing to keep his independence. He was willing to take risks for political gain, and he learned how to play politics in Chicago, a city known for its bare-knuckled brand.

In 1992, despite having a deal to write a book about being the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, 30-year-old Obama took a detour.

He took a low-paying job directing the Illinois office of a national group called Project Vote. His task was to organize Chicago-area efforts to register minority and low-income voters. Taking the post meant blowing his book deadline and losing the contract.

"That he was willing to give up the sort of easy road to public notice spoke volumes about how deeply he believed in making the democratic process work for people," said Project Vote's founder Sandy Newman, who hired Obama.

Yet Jerry Kellman, who'd given Obama his first job in Chicago seven years earlier — as a community organizer — and had watched his interests shift to politics, understood his Project Vote stint as something more strategic.



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