|
Obama fixes goals
on home
The star senator and party hopeful
sets his sights firmly on helping
his district
ROCKFORD, Ill. » In the days since he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has chatted by phone with President Bush, had his picture in People magazine and appeared several times on national television.
He's also been quizzed by the likes of 17-year-old Abby Longbottom, who joined her senator-elect in the stuffy basement of the Rockford Public Library to hear him talk about after-school programs.
Such is the life of the nation's only black senator, who comes to Washington wearing the label of the Democratic Party's great hope but promising only to work for the folks back home.
"I have not taken the hype too seriously," Obama said after bidding farewell to his colleagues in the Illinois Legislature last week. "When you've worked in relative obscurity for a long period of time, I think you make a decision that you're in this to actually get something accomplished, as opposed to seeking out the limelight."
The limelight, though, continues to seek out Obama, who became a political star after a rousing keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
Before that he was a relatively unknown state senator from Chicago, a 43-year-old Harvard Law School graduate and self-proclaimed "skinny kid with a funny name" who had come out on top of a primary field of seven Democrats competing for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.
Obama skated through a potentially tough race when the millionaire Republican primary winner dropped out amid a sex scandal. Then John Kerry's campaign picked him for the convention speech.
Obama's autographs now fetch bids on eBay, and Internet sites offer "Obama '08 President" bumper stickers.
Although he appeared on "Meet the Press" and sifted through 100 interview requests, most of Obama's post-election time has been spent outside the national spotlight. He traveled across Illinois and packed in crowds at libraries and city hall chambers, where people wanted to know what he would do for their schools or businesses or local bus service.
Yet his broad appeal is evident even at these events. Deki Fox traveled 1 1/2 hours from Milwaukee to Rockford just to tell Obama how much she liked him, even if he wasn't her senator.
"You have my mandate and the mandate of people way beyond Rockford or even the state of Illinois," Fox said. "We are people who are divided as a country, and we need your presence ... to bring us back together as an American people."
"That's a pretty big job you just gave me," Obama said, prompting laughter from the library crowd.
When pressed, Obama acknowledges that all the attention is likely to give him more influence than a typical rookie in Congress, but he seems well aware of the perils. He calls the presidential talk "silly" and says his first weeks in Washington will be spent finding the bathrooms and learning the ropes.
Kenya claims Obama
as model
U.S. Sen.-elect Barack Obama is a big man in Kenya, his late father's homeland, and the Kenyan people are following his political career closely, according to marathon runner Mbarak Hussein.
"People there relate to him. He has a big following in Kenya," said Hussein, who spent June and July in his native country. "People there are following the U.S. presidential election, and then Obama's race."
The Illinois Democrat, whose white mother was from Kansas, "has a big influence back home," Hussein said during a recent goodwill visit to Honolulu to talk to isle schoolchildren and run with high school and college cross-country teams. Hussein is a three-time winner of the Honolulu Marathon and plans to return to run that race for the 10th time on Dec. 12.
Obama easily won the election on Nov. 2, becoming only the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
As an April Fool's joke, a newspaper in Kenya published a story that Obama was coming to visit his father's home village, Hussein said. "People turned out in big numbers because they thought it was true," he said.
While Hussein is from the Nandi tribe, known for its runners, Obama's father was from the neighboring Luo tribe near Lake Victoria, known for its politicians, Hussein said.
The Luo tribesmen are smart people, he said. "They are one of the most educated groups in Kenya.
"Obama will be a role model for a lot of young people in Kenya," said Hussein, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M.
During his visit, Hussein spoke by telephone to Obama's sister, who lives in Honolulu, but was unable to meet her in person.
While speaking to students and running with the cross-country team at Punahou School -- where Obama graduated in 1979 -- Hussein was shown the spot where Obama signed his name in wet cement in high school.
"I had to take a picture of that," Hussein said.
