218 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographycoming up with concrete solutions.” He promised new leadership, reaching beyond the black
community and leading coalitions to take on contemporary problems, cut crime, expand health
care coverage, promote economic development and expand educational opportunities. But
several weeks later, Mr. Lester’s polling put Mr. Rush’s approval rating at 70 percent and Mr.
Obama’s at 8 percent. Forty-seven percent of the people polled favored Mr. Rush, 10 percent
favored Mr. Obama and 5 percent favored a third candidate, State Senator Donne E. Trotter,
who is also black. Almost all of Mr. Obama’s support initially came from whites, Mr. Lester
said.’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York
Times, September 9, 2007)
Rush thus had some vulnerabilities, but he could also count on significant loyalty in the black
neighborhoods. Part of the election result was also determined by the shooting of Rush’s son in
what appeared to be a random street crime.
“Bobby Rush had not been the most active member of Congress from Illinois, but there was no
issue that made him particularly vulnerable,” [Obama ally Abner] Mikva said. “He hadn’t
robbed a bank or beaten his grandmother or things like that. In that respect, I was concerned.”
“Also,” Mr. Mikva said, “I had seen reform candidates running against incumbents in African-
American areas. It’s hard. Reform is not the most compelling issue to people who don’t have a
job.” Then in mid-October, Mr. Rush’s 29-year-old son, Huey Rich, was shot on his way home
from a grocery store. He hung between life and death for four days. Mr. Rush benefited from an
outpouring of sympathy; the wake was studded with politicians and there were renewed calls
for gun control, one of Mr. Rush’s causes. “That incident seemed to wash away any bad
feelings that voters had or might have had about Bobby Rush,” said Chris Sautter, whose
communications firm worked on the Obama campaign.’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise
Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007)OBAMA AWOL ON KEY GUN CONTROL VOTE:
WAS MICHELLE RESPONSIBLE?
Obama also committed the fundamental political error of considering a family vacation more
important than a vote in the state legislature on a key piece of gun control legislation, of which he
had been one of the main backers. Here we may hear the strident voice of Michelle Obama
demanding that she get her vacation, and gun control be damned:
Later, Gov. George Ryan called the Legislature into special session to try to re-enact a package
of gun-safety bills that the Illinois Supreme Court had overturned. Mr. Obama was voting
consistently in favor of it. But the session dragged on toward Christmas and an annual trip to
Hawaii to visit his grandmother, who had helped rear him. He had planned to return after the
holiday when the session was to resume, Mr. Shomon said. But a crucial vote came up earlier
than expected. With Mr. Obama and others absent, it failed by five votes. Mr. Obama, in
particular, came under fire. In his defense, he said he had not flown back in time because his
18-month-old daughter was sick. But he was hammered by editorial writers, the governor and
Mr. Rush. “We were thrown under the bus,” Mr. Shomon said. “It was a terrible day of news
coverage, since, A, we got blasted for not being there and, B, the perception was that Obama
doesn’t care about gun safety.”
By this point, Obama was one chastened megalomaniac, as he tells us himself in his generally
self-serving memoir: