VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 237US SENATE: THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
AND THE ELIMINATION OF BLAIR HULL
We must now attempt to explain how the mediocre and relatively obscure Obama was able to
force his way into the United States Senate in 2004 against other candidates who were better
known, better qualified, and better financed. Once again, Trilateral magic will play a central role.
Most accounts of this Senate race are purely fantastic, and try to explain Obama’s unlikely victory
as a product of some astute machinations by the anointed one. Here is an example from a
meretricious journalist whose notoriously slimy methods became a focus of attention during the
Spring 2008 primaries:
...the [Illinois] Senate race was crowded, dominated by two independently wealthy newcomers
to politics: on the Democratic side, Blair Hull, a former securities trader who had made his first
stake playing blackjack and pumped $29 million of his own money into the race, and for the
Republicans, Jack Ryan, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who had made a fortune
and then spent time as a teacher in an inner-city Catholic school. Another Democratic contender
was the state controller, Dan Hynes, from an old Chicago political family, who figured to have
strong labor and organization support. But Obama had his own ace: Emil Jones, whose support
had the effect of tying the hands of Mayor Richard Daley and Governor Rod Blagojevich. “He
knew if he had me in the run for the Senate, it would put a block on the current mayor,” Jones
recalled. “The current mayor and the father of the controller, which was Dan Hynes, they were
roommates in Springfield when the mayor was a state senator, so they had a relationship.
Another big financial backer for the governor was Blair Hull. Barack knew if he had me it
would checkmate the governor, ‘cause the governor couldn’t come out and go with Blair Hull,
‘cause the governor needs me. Same with the mayor. So he had analyzed and figured all of that
out. He knew I could help him with labor support. And I could put a checkmate on some of the
local politicians that didn’t know him, but they couldn’t really go against me. It was just like in
a football game: you got this talented running back, but without those linemen opening the
holes and blocking, the running back would never get out of the backfield.” Obama secured the
nomination and in November 2004 won election to the Senate. (Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair,
March 2008)
This is the journalism of pure hallucination. The account given is absolutely fraudulent, and
makes no mention whatever of the decisive factors that determined the outcome of this Senate race:
these were two huge scandals which, with perfect timing, came out of nowhere and destroyed
Obama’s most formidable opponents in the Democratic primary, Marson Blair Hull, and then —
once again with perfect timing — brought down Jack Ryan, Obama’s Republican opponent in the
November election. The New York Times account was a little better, but still left out the main
things:
If freshman senators arrive as celebrities, it is usually because they are “dragon slayers,” having
ousted big-name incumbents. Mr. Obama was not one of those; two serious opponents in
Illinois self-destructed, smoothing his path to election in November 2004. (New York Times,
March 9, 2008)
What these establishment writers are trying to hide is the fact that Obama has never won election
to public office in a truly contested election. The 2004 Illinois Senate race confirms this adage,
since Obama faced no serious opposition in the Democratic primary or in the general election, since
his most formidable opponents had been knocked out by piloted scandals.