Boston Globe, Defining Moments, Barack Obama: Early defeat launched a rapid political climb

[DeepModem Mom]

Early defeat launched a rapid political climb
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | October 12, 2007
The second in a series of occasional articles examining the 2008 candidates for president.

....Obama had established himself as an up-and-coming black politician with big dreams - a conciliatory figure whose promise held redemptive power for an America eager to transcend the divisive racial politics of yesterday. But his bruising loss to US Representative Bobby Rush in the March 21, 2000, Democratic primary, along with pressure from his wife to pursue a more predictable and lucrative career, left him facing hard choices.

He was a 38-year-old second-term state senator laboring under Republican leadership in Springfield, the state capital. Yet he lacked a clear political alternative. "Is Obama dead?" one Chicago commentator asked on radio. In his soul-searching, Obama considered what today seems unthinkable: getting out of politics....Obama tried to imagine himself in different roles. He considered becoming president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago organization that gives out roughly $50 million a year to initiatives on the environment, poverty, violence, and schools. The position was high-profile, well paying, close to home, and appealed to his sense of public mission. Obama knew the foundation's work because he was on its board at the time.

But there was a catch: He would have to leave the state Senate, at least temporarily putting his political ambitions on ice. "I think he really was at a point where he had to decide whether, look, am I going to be a behind-the-scenes policy guy, or am I going to follow up on Springfield with political actions?" said Carin Clauss, a Joyce Foundation board member at the time.

The foundation job was one of several alternatives to politics Obama weighed, including a full-time teaching job at the University of Chicago Law School, returning to full-time law practice, and even joining friends in the business world. None felt right. "I think, in my heart, I wanted to continue in public service," Obama said in an interview.

Some of Obama's friends and advisers say he was morose after the loss to Rush; others recall his resilience. The congressional campaign gave him reason to feel both: He got a glimpse of what he could be as a political leader, but he had chosen the wrong race to break into national politics and not run a strong campaign....

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/12/early_defeat_launched_a_rapid_political_climb/?page=full

[TwilightGardener]

1. Good article, thank you!