216 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyThe rise of Barack Obama includes one glaring episode of political miscalculation. Even friends
told Mr. Obama it was a bad idea when he decided in 1999 to challenge an incumbent
congressman and former Black Panther, Bobby L. Rush, whose stronghold on the South Side of
Chicago was overwhelmingly black, Democratic and working class. “Campaigns are always,
‘What’s the narrative of the race?’” said Eric Adelstein, a media consultant in Chicago who
worked on the Rush campaign. “In a sense, it was ‘the Black Panther against the professor.’
That’s not a knock on Obama; but to run from Hyde Park, this little bastion of academia, this
white community in the black South Side — it just seemed odd that he would make that choice
as a kind of stepping out.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young
Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007)
When the idea of challenging Congressman Bobby Rush first occurred to him, Obama made
some calls to his backers. One was Newton Minow, who as chief of the Federal Communications
Commission had coined the phrase “vast wasteland” to describe network television back during the
Kennedy administration. But Minow was now far from the New Frontier, and had settled in as an
official of the Sidley Austin law firm, the lawyers on retainer for Tom Ayers’ Commonwealth
Edison, where Bernardine Dohrn and Michelle Obama had worked, and where Barky met Michelle
one summer. Not just Minow, but also his daughter, apparently worked as his case officers for the
promising young property called Obama. Newton Minow was skeptical that Obama could win the
race:
Mr. Obama called Mr. Minow, his former boss, asking to see him. Mr. Obama was eyeing the
Hyde Park Congressional seat held by Bobby L. Rush, a former Black Panther leader. “Are you
nuts?” Mr. Minow recalled telling the younger man. “Barack, I think this is a mistake.” Mr.
Minow flipped through his Rolodex, calling black businesspeople and asking them if they
would help finance Mr. Obama’s bid. He said he received a uniform answer: “No — let him
wait his turn.” Nevertheless, the impatient Mr. Obama jumped into the race. Brimming with
confidence, he equated Mr. Rush with “a politics that is rooted in the past” and cast himself as
someone who could reach beyond the racial divide to get things done. (Jo Becker and
Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11,
2008.)OBAMA BLINDED BY OVERWEENING AMBITION
As for Congressman Rush, he realized that he was dealing with an egomaniac at the very least:
“He was blinded by his ambition,” Mr. Rush said. “Obama has never suffered from a lack of
believing that he can accomplish whatever it is he decides to try. Obama believes in Obama.
And, frankly, that has its good side but it also has its negative side.” Mr. Rush’s district, the
state’s most Democratic, was 65 percent black. And in 1999, it included not only Hyde Park,
home of the University of Chicago, but several relatively affluent Irish-American
neighborhoods. (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,”
New York Times, September 9, 2007)LATTE LIBERALS FOR OBAMA
The divide between Rush and Obama therefore occurred along class lines rather than according
to any racial divide. The affluent and the elitists went for Obama, and the working families chose
the alternative of Rush.