Book traces Obama's political roots in city
October 23, 2010
BY KATHLEEN LAVEYA new book on President Obama's beginnings in politics has its roots in the author's work as a political writer for an alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago.
Edward McClelland's book Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President began as an assignment from his editors at the Chicago Reader, who, in 1999, asked him to check out candidates who were running for Congress in the city's heavily African-American 1st District.
President Obama speaks in support of Nevada Sen. Harry Reid during a rally on Friday in Las Vegas.
(Getty Images)
President Obama speaks in support of Nevada Sen. Harry Reid during a rally on Friday in Las Vegas.
(Getty Images)
Obama had arrived in Chicago in the 1980s, worked as a community organizer on the South Side, taken a break to go to Harvard Law school, then returned to Chicago with an eye on politics. He had been elected to the Illinois Senate and was in his third term when he decided to take a stab at Congress.
McClelland went to the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side to listen to Obama speak on a Saturday afternoon.
"He gave this kind of dull and professorial speech," McClelland said. "He was kind of stiff and pompous."
McClelland remembers thinking at the time that Obama -- who lost that race -- was running for the wrong seat.
"I thought he should be running for the Senate," he said. "He wasn't meant to be the spokesman for one particular race. I thought he had more appeal as a multiracial candidate."
Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004.
In the book, McClelland argues that Chicago's segregation and machine politics ultimately made it the perfect city to generate the nation's first black president.
"Machine politics is about ethnic coalitions, so everybody gets a piece of the action," McClelland said. "He had this whole history of black politics behind him that lifted him to where he was."
Gannett News Service
Congrats, Ted on getting the book done and noticed.
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