What a Difference A Year Makes...
almost like nooz
LAT [September 08, 2007 in print edition A-1
Fresh face or old-school player?
He managed to burnish a reformer’s reputation while swimming in the muddy waters of special-interest- infested state politics.
He worked on a nice-guy image while practicing the hardball and brawling tactics of Chicago-style politics.
...Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has to contend with his own history.
... his past is filled with decidedly old-school political tactics – a history of befriending powerful local elders, assisting benefactors and special interests, and neutralizing rivals.
Obama may be packaged as something new among presidential contenders, but in this town where politics is played like a blood sport he fit right in.
Including the tales of Alice Palmer, Antoin Rezko, Al Johnson, Emil Jones Jr., Alfred Ronan, Yesse B. Yehudah,
Cynthia K. Miller, who ran his district office, recalls an incident shortly after Obama’s election. [to state senator] She had taken a longer-than-normal lunch break and returned to find an impatient state senator waiting for her.
He didn’t raise his voice, she said, but he turned stern as he explained the importance of time management and the need to focus on goals. Then he shared his own goal: “I plan to be president.”
“When he said it, he wasn’t just whistling Dixie. I believed,” Miller said. ...
Uhm… what tapes?
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