The word on Barack Obama from Iowa

Why Barack Obama can win the Iowa Caucuses -- by DOUGLAS BURNS/Daily Times Herald Iowa

It goes without saying that when Barack Obama is on the television screen or behind the political podium we see a black man.

That is, after all, what he is.

But when you listen to Obama, the substance of thinking, the cadence of his reasoning, his unassuming acceptance of people, you hear a Midwesterner.

It is for this reason, as much as his Kennedyesque charisma, that Obama, 45, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, a political mercury rising, could capture the Iowa Caucuses should he launch a presidential bid.

In the next weeks, Obama is expected announce if he will try to take the lightning in a bottle that is his now-stratospheric public profile and turn it into something of an enduring flame with real policy achievements.

Does he have what the title of best-selling book terms "The Audacity of Hope"?

Current and former top Iowa politicians and a one-time Clinton administration appointee and Carroll native familiar with the inner workings of campaigns in this state see Obama as a potentially strong candidate in the Hawkeye State.

"What wins a caucus?" says former Republican Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot. "If it is charisma, Senator Obama has the upper hand over all the Democrat contenders."

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who ran for president in 1992, saw the Barack effect up close and personal in Indianola this fall at Harkin's annual steak fry. Trailed by a horde of media and circled like a popular evangelist or rock star by well-wishers, Obama autographed numerous copies of his best-selling memoir, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."

"I think Barack Obama has a lot of potential in many areas," Harkin told The Daily Times Herald at the time. "He has the potential of being a great senator, being a unifier in terms of bringing better race relations to this county."

That was before Democratic Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack entered the race for the White House and earned Harkin's immediate endorsement.

Brad Knott, a 1976 Kuemper Catholic High School graduate who worked on President Bill Clinton's first campaign and has served as an adviser to Iowa Democrats, says at this point he is backing Obama.

"I really like Barack Obama," Knott, now a University of Maryland professor who maintains close ties to Iowa politics, said. "He is my guy right now. If he keeps the car between the ditches - no big mistakes and assuming he has 'reasonably' liberal politics - I think he will do well in the Iowa caucuses."

Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Mike Peterson, a Carroll native who is now a government relations official for AT&T in St. Louis, Mo., says speculation on caucus outcomes are far too premature. Peterson represented Carroll in the Iowa House of Representatives before making a bid for Congress in western Iowa and moving to the state party and later the corporate world.

"Senator Obama has not yet been fully vetted by the media and party regulars," Peterson said. "Charisma counts, but in addition, a candidate has to demonstrate some political acumen. His election to the U.S. Senate over Alan Keyes (who didn't even live in Illinois at the time) isn't proof enough."

Iowans take their role in narrowing the field of presidential aspirants very seriously, notes Peterson.

"If Obama can master retail politics there, he can finish in the top tier, but probably not first," Peterson said. "His goal of winning is further complicated when running in a field that includes a 'favorite son' candidate like Vilsack."

Carroll attorney and former Republican Lt. Gov. Art Neu views Obama as "impressive."

"I think he's one of the three top candidates," Neu said. "I think it's him and Hillary and Edwards."

One recent poll places Obama third in the Iowa Caucuses running. The Sioux City Journal reports that former vice presidential candidate John Edwards is the top choice among Iowa Democrats likely to attend the 2008 presidential caucuses with 36 percent of those asked, according to an Environmental Defense poll.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., finished second with 16 percent and Obama had 13 percent. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack finished fourth at 9 percent.

For his part, Knott tells The Daily Times Herald that caucus attendees are generally liberal, older and want to win.

"Most recent national campaigns are won in the Midwest," Knott said. "Right now the Illinois senator is looking like a winner, knows the Midwest, is liberal enough and - most important for some - he is not Hillary."

Knott says Obama can transcend race in Iowa.

"Some say Iowa is not exactly the audience for an African American and women to launch history-making campaigns," Knott said. "But Barack and Hillary, with their unique star qualities, will likely increase the usual turnout."

In analyzing the caucuses, Knott said, it is important to remember the influence of the unions in the state and the political payback they may feel Vilsack deserves.

"Vilsack will be a serious player and bring out his own vote," Knott said. "Look for heavy pressure on the national unions from Iowa chapters to let them go for Vilsack."

In spite of polls showing Vilsack trailing Obama, Clinton and Edwards in Iowa, Lightfoot - who faced Vilsack in the 1998 gubernatorial race - thinks his old foe should be the favorite to win the Iowa caucuses.

"However, Senator Barack Obama is riding a wave of national attention, i.e. Jay Leno, 'Monday Night Football' and other talk shows," Lightfoot said in a recent interview with The Daily Times Herald. "He also is the current darling of the national media, but as we all know, that can change in a heartbeat."

Vilsack has the governorship under his belt while Obama has always been a legislator, not a manager, notes Lightfoot.

"Obama has yet to lay out a clear plan of his vision and how to achieve it," Lightfoot said. "The governor has been a bit more specific but still needs to say more on his agenda."

Lightfoot gives the nod to Vilsack with organization.

"In his past races he has had the support of the sizable Clinton machine that includes workers and money," Lightfoot said. "This race is different. He will have to assemble his own organization. Many of the same people have been both Clinton and Vilsack supporters. The governor has his work cut out to bring as many of those Clinton supporters to his side as possible, if Hillary runs."

If Mrs. Clinton does run, Lightfoot said, it seems the governor will have to beat her internally before he can effectively take on Obama.

As Lightfoot observed, Obama has been the recipient of almost unprecedented positive coverage from the national media.

A cover story in Men's Vogue ended with what amounted to an endorsement of not only Obama's political aspirations, but his place in history.

"Obama, of course, would never be so immodest as to compare himself to those two men (Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln)," Men's Vogue said. "But being clear-eyed he must see what others do: that among American politicians, he alone has the potential to one day be mentioned in the same breath."

Knowing full well that the national media often builds and then crashes public figures Obama says he views the headlines and hoopla as transitory.

But even when Obama does take broadsides and carefully crafted insults, the inevitable slings and arrows of politics at the highest level, he will retain a rare connectivity to voters. He understands people, not because, as Bill Clinton, he feels their pain in some abstract Baby Boomerish sense.

Obama connects with others for the simple reason that he knows himself and is confident in his strengths and comfortable with his flaws.

This journey has made him remarkably open to others.

Obama's also willing to take an internal monologue, the rolling over of ideas and motivations and self-doubts, and make them public in two best-selling books.

Aside from being frank about youthful experimentation with drugs and alcohol Obama goes so far as to admit that he may be wrong in supporting a woman's right to choose an abortion and opposing gay marriage.

"It is my obligation, not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided, just as I cannot claim infallibility in my support of abortion rights," Obama writes in "The Audacity of Hope." "I must admit that I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God; that Jesus' call to love one another might demand a different conclusion; and that in years hence I might be seen on the wrong side of history."

Obama's also a politician who can write rich dialogue in his books, which means he has the ear and skill to give others a voice. It's not something one can fake.

Obama, a Harvard Law School graduate who worked in Chicago as a community organizer, civil rights lawyer and law professor, is the son of a Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., and Kansan mother, Ann Dunham.

He jokes that one of the first questions he fields from people is the origin of his name.

"People wouldn't always say it right," Obama said. "They would call me 'Alabama' or they would call me, 'Yo mamma.'"

He added, "My father was from Kenya. That's where I got my name. And then my mother was from Kansas which is where I got my accent."

In Obama's memoir, "Dreams From My Father," it is clear that his white Kansan grandparents formed his day- to-day view of life, his rhythm of living, more than his absentee Kenyan father.

In Indianola this past September, before a mostly white audience of 3,000 people, Obama held the crowd in rapt attention. In fact, it was so quiet at times that you could hear the leaves rustling in a gentle wind.

"As the child of a black man and a white woman, someone who was born in the racial melting pot of Hawaii, with a sister who's half Indonesian but who's usually mistaken for Mexican or Puerto Rican, and a brother-in-law and niece of Chinese descent, with some blood relatives who resemble Margaret Thatcher and others who could pass for Bernie Mac, so that family get-togethers over Christmas take on the appearance of a U.N. General Assembly meeting, I've never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race, or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe," Obama writes in "The Audacity of Hope."

On the key issues of the day, Obama publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in a rally in 2002 before the war started.

"We understand that fundamentally our effort in Iraq has been misconceived," Obama said.

But people shouldn't read the Obama family as pacifists, he said, noting that his grandfather, the man he wrote about extensively in his memoir, fought in Gen. George Patton's Army in World War II.

"There are times when we have to ask all of us to sacrifice on behalf of future generations," Obama said. "But this is not one of those times."

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Obama hasn't had much time to compile a national legislative resume, particularly with his party in the minority.

That leads some to say he's not taken stands on the issues.

Reading his books reveals rather clearly what some of his priorities would be (see related sidebar).

Moreover, there seems a sense among many that Barack Obama is a man for the time.

"He reminds me in many ways of Kennedy in 1960," Theodore Sorensen, JFK's speechwriter and adviser, told Newsweek.

In his own words
Barack Obama on the Democrats:
"That Reagan's message found such a receptive audience spoke to his skills as a communicator; it also spoke to the failures of liberal government, during a period of economic stagnation, to give middle-class voters any sense that it was fighting for them."

"I also think my party can be smug, detached, and dogmatic at times. I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don't work as advertised. I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers."

Himself:
"My wife will tell you that by nature I'm not somebody who gets real worked up about things. When I see Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity baying across the television screen, I find it hard to take them seriously; I assume they must be saying what they do primarily to boost sales or ratings."

"I know that as a consequence of my fund-raising I became more like the wealthy donors I met, in the very particular sense that I spent more of my time above the fray, outside the world of immediate hunger, disappointment, fear, irrationality and the frequent hardship of the other 99 percent of the population."

On trade and globalization:
"America can't compete with China and India simply by cutting costs and shrinking government - unless we're willing to tolerate a drastic decline in American living standards, with smog-choked cities and beggars lining the street. Nor can America compete simply by erecting trade barriers and raising the minimum wage - unless we're willing to confiscate all the world's computers."

Teachers:
"There's no reason why an experienced, high-qualified, and effective teacher shouldn't earn $100,000 annually at the peak of his or her career. Highly skilled teachers in such critical fields as math and science - as well as those willing to teach in the toughest urban schools - should be paid even more."

Oil and taxes:
"Instead of subsidizing the oil industry we should end every single tax break the industry currently receives and demand that 1 percent of the revenues from oil companies with over $1 billion in quarterly profits go toward financing alternative energy research and the necessary infrastructure."

Debt and deficits:
"The bulk of the debt is a direct result of the President's tax cuts, 47.4 percent of which went to the top 5 percent of the income bracket, 36.7 percent of which went to the top 1 percent, and 15 percent of which went to the top one-tenth of 1 percent, typically people making $1.6 million or more."

His Christian faith:
"It is my obligation, not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided, just as I cannot claim infallibility in my support of abortion rights. I must admit that I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God; that Jesus' call to love one another might demand a different conclusion; and that in years hence I might be seen on the wrong side of history."

Race:
"As the child of a black man and a white woman, someone who was born in the racial melting pot of Hawaii, with a sister who's half Indonesian but who's usually mistaken for Mexican or Puerto Rican, and a brother-in-law and niece of Chinese descent, with some blood relatives who resemble Margaret Thatcher and others who could pass for Bernie Mac, so that family get-togethers over Christmas take on the appearance of a UN General Assembly meeting, I've never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race, or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe."

Foreign Affairs:
"There are few examples in history in which the freedom men and women crave is delivered through outside intervention. In almost every successful social movement of the last century, from Gandhi's campaign against British rule to the Solidarity movement in Poland to the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, democracy was the result of a local awakening."