Barack breaks the 20% rule
Superstitious about the 20% rule, I said nothing about my friend, Barack Obama, who has won (with a healthy 60% majority) the Democratic nomination for Senate in Illinois. Barack was an adjunct at the University of Chicago while I was teaching there, and then just as I left, became a regular professor. He is an astonishingly decent and bright forty-something star. Siva points to a great piece about the race. And keep your eyes on 2012: when he will no longer be known as the 5th whatever, but will become the 3d and 1st in one year. (Consider it the Lessig Sunday Puzzle).
| Permalink | technorati
Comments (20)
I'm not sure what you mean by "3d", but I assume "1st" is a reference to the first black President. I think Obama would make an excellent President, but I don't think it likely that someone who's name rhymes with Iraq Osama is likely to carry many more states than Illinois. Obama is very popular here in Illinois right now, but it may be prohibitively difficult to make a connection in the other 49.
Incidentally, I have heard at least two other commentators say they expect Obama to be President one day. Anyone who particularly wants to see a President Obama one day should probably start dropping his name in their writings now, and not stop stop until he's elected. (Which, of course, some have begun to do.
I had Obama at U of C law school for voting rights. He is a very smart and decent man, and his primary campaign showed that he ain't a half bad pol, either. I think I missed Prof. Lessig by a couple of years. Anyway, Obama will make waves at the national level, and rightly so.
Some other recent alums and I held a fundraiser for Obama in early March, with special guest Studs Terkel. Pictures can be found by clicking my name and scrolling down.
OK, I give up, what's the 20% rule?
this.
Mr. Obama should read this opinion piece at Black Commentator.
Good luck to him!
Obama will be the third black senator in U.S. history, and then the first black president. And he will! It was a privilege, as a Chicago resident, to be able to vote for him in the Illinois primary.
5th black senator in history, 3rd black to run for president, and first to win.
"3rd black to run for president"
Err no...
3rd President from Illinois? (If you don't count Ronald Regan...) Lincoln, Grant, and Regan so far...
3rd black senator since reconstruction, 5th black senator ever, 1st black president. Oh, wait, but that wouldn't be 3rd and 1st at the same time.
I give up! Please answer the Sunday puzzle!
Obama is America!
He's Black! He's White! He's the child of an immigrant and a native born citizen. He is an Ivy School graduate, from a middle class family. He has a wife with movie star good looks and two beautiful daughters. All he need now to make him complete is a scandal developed by the right wing to overcome his perfectly clean image. Once he's eliminated that hurdle he will be a candidate for President in earnest.
Correct answer: 3rd black senator.
We had
1st 1966 Edward W. Brooke/Massachusetts
and
2nd 1982 Carol Moseley Braun/Illinois.
And now Obama as the 3rd...
If it's "3rd and 1st in the same year" then he can't be referring to being the 3rd black senator... and he's the 5th black senator anyway. Two were elected between 1870 and 1881, and two more since the mid-sixties. See the CBC history page.
I'd guess it's something nuanced about the nomination, like the 3rd black presidential candidate to win a major party primary or caucus, something like that. I know Jesse Jackson has carried states for the nomination before, I'm not sure who else has.
Excuse, he will be the 5th black Senator.
I'm guessing he'll be the third U.S. citizen born overseas to seek the nomination of a major party (the other two are Romney and McCain), as well as the first to seek such nomination as a democrat (the other two were Republicans). This is the only answer that does not depend on him actually winning the senate election in 2004, or the democratic nomination in 2012.
Sorry, I meant the 3rd after reconstruction. Before that we had Hiram R. Revels (1870) and Blanche K. Bruce (1874).
Black senators:
Hiram R. Revels, MS, 1870 to 1871
Blanche K. Bruce, MS, 1875 to 1881
Edward W. Brooke, MA, 1967 to 1979
Carol Moseley Braun, IL, 1993 to 1999
Barack Obama, IL, 2005 to . . .
List_of_former_United_States_Senators
In case anyone is interested in history after reading those comments...
2012 never made sense. What is the 3d? I doubt Shirley Chisholm carried any state primaries, and I know Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton did not.
I had Obama at U of C law school for voting rights. He is a very smart and decent man, and his primary campaign showed that he ain't a half bad pol, either. I think I missed Prof. Lessig by a couple of years. Anyway, Obama will make waves at the national level, and rightly so.
Some other recent alums and I held a fundraiser for Obama in early March, with special guest Studs Terkel. Pictures can be found by clicking my name and scrolling down.