February 10, 2007: Nine Years Later

"On a frigid Springfield day in February 2007, Barack Obama stood before 17,000 supporters 'in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together,' and announced his candidacy for President of the United States.

"It had been less than three years since he became a national figure and he'd spent much of that time building an organization that would spread his message and raise money through cutting edge technology and smart analysis of what it would take to win..."

Excerpt from "Kings's Dream: Barack Obama Becomes President of the United States of America"

Today, exactly nine years later, President Obama returns to Springfield to address the Illinois General Assembly to talk about “what we can do, together, to build a better politics - one that reflects our better selves.”

We can't help but appreciate the values displayed by Mr. Obama and his family throughout the past nine years. Especially at a time when the current election is chock full of bombast, dirty tricks, racism and sexism, the contrast between our president and the 'wannabees' is striking.

And we applaud the classiness shown by David Brooks of the New York Times, an opponent of many of the president's policies, in praising Mr. Obama's character and leadership:

"Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I'm beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him."

---

For a compelling history of the 2008 campaign, as told by news media, politicians, and ordinary people, see King's Dream: Barack Obama Becomes President of the United States of America.

NBRA Labels Obama Elitist

Although the Palm Beach Republican Party initially funded the National Black Republicans Association in 2005, they have since distanced themselves from the NBRA after its president, Frances Rice, put up billboards suggesting all Democrats belong to the KKK and embrace child molesters.

Her new 2008 television and radio ads referred to candidate Obama as an “out of touch elitist” who is “not fit to be president.” Rice, hoping to alienate black Americans from the Democrat, believes their allegiance should be to the Republican Party who freed them from slavery.

On August 21, 2012, NBC/WSJ released a new poll:

"Looking inside the numbers, Obama continues to lead Romney among key parts of his political base, including African Americans (94 percent to 0 percent), Latinos (by a 2-to-1 margin), voters under 35-years-old (52 percent to 41 percent) and women (51 percent to 41 percent)."

Obama's Cabinet

In 2008, candidate Obama was inspired by Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Abraham Lincoln and told Time Magazine's Joe Klein that he wanted a "team of rivals" in his own cabinet.

Todd Purdum examines the issue in a July 2012 article for Vanity Fair.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were Obama rivals during the primary campaign. Ray LaHood, a Republican from Illinois, is Obama's Transportation Secretary. Obama retained Robert Gates from the Bush administration, and selected seeming-non-loyalists Tim Geithner to run Treasury and Leon Panetta to run the C.I.A. (Gates and Panetta later switched jobs.)

Purdum traces the evolution of presidents' cabinets and notes that the power and usefulness cabinet members used to wield is now based in White House staff members, whose numbers have grown through the years.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

On July 14, 2008, The New Yorker magazine released it's next-week-issue that included a cover cartoon depicting candidate Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist. The Obama campaign, as well as the McCain campaign, quickly denounced the cover as offensive. The magazine stood by its belief that the cartoon was satirical, intended to ridicule the absurd rumors flying around about Senator Obama.

Four years later, absurd rumors about President Obama persist. One is reminded of The Whispering Gallery at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois, "a twisted, nightmarish hallway where you will hear brutally unkind things said about Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln during their early months in Washington. On the walls are cruel caricatures and barbed political cartoons that attack the Lincolns." Read more about the Lincoln Museum.