Reply #52: Alexander is right. As Obama was

[jbnow]

finishing law school voting in predominately black wards in Chicago was at a record low and they wanted to have Project Vote. Obama had done his years as community organizer there so they knew his effectiveness and decided to ask if he'd do it.

It wasn't "all" democrats because you don't do all at a city or state level-or as a new senator.

He agreed to do the 6 month project, They went from the lowest voter registration to record highs. For the 1st time the 19 mostly black wards had more registered voters than the 19 mostly white wards. And they voted big, over half million.

This article is from 1993 so it's not campaign hype, he wasn't in politics then. Even if you don't like him I hope you will read it. It was an amazing thing
He really isn't some empty suit. He's been "working for change" since he graduated in 1983 (though he went to law school a few years later) I'm not trying to change votes, just so we who support him are not basing it on pipe dreans and are not Obamamanizcs and he is so much more than pretty talk. He really has walked what he is talking

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/

When Newman called, Obama agreed to put his other work aside. "I'm still not quite sure why," Newman says. ''This was not glamorous, high-paying work. But I am certainly grateful. He did one hell of a job."

Within a few months, Obama, a tall, affable workaholic, had recruited staff and volunteers from black churches, community groups, and politicians. He helped train 700 deputy registrars, out of a total of 11,000 citywide. And he began a saturation media campaign with the help of black-owned Brainstorm Communications. (The company's president, Terri Gardner, is the sister of Gary Gardner, president of Soft Sheen Products, Inc., which donated thousands of dollars to Project Voters efforts.) The group's slogan-"It's a Power Thing"-was ubiquitous in African-American neighborhoods. Posters were put up. Black-oriented radio stations aired the group's ads and announced where people could go to register. Minority owners of McDonald's restaurants allowed registrars on site and donated paid radio time to Project Vote! Labor unions provided funding, as, in late fall, did the Clinton/Gore campaign, whose national voter-registration drive was being directed by Chicago alderman Bobby Rush.

"It was overwhelming," says Joseph Gardner, a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the director of the steering committee for Project Vote! "The black community in this city had not been so energized and so single-minded since Harold died."

Burrell agrees. "We were registering hundreds a day, and we weren't having to search them out. They came looking for us. African Americans were just so eager to have a say again, to feel they counted."

"I think it's fair to say we reinvigorated a slumbering constituency," says Obama. "We got people to take notice."

They wanted to know if he'd run someday.

Nor can Obama himself be ignored. The success of the voter-registration drive has marked him as the political star the Mayor should perhaps be watching for. "The sky's the limit for Barack," says Burrell.

Some of Daley's closest advisers are similarly impressed. "In its technical demands, a voter-registration drive is not unlike a mini-political campaign," says John Schmidt, chairman of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and a fundraiser for Project Vote! "Barack ran this superbly. I have no doubt he could run an equally good political campaign if that's what he decided to do next."

Obama shrugs off the possibility of running for office. "Who knows?" he says. "But probably not immediately." He smiles. "Was that a sufficiently politic 'maybe'? My sincere answer is, I'll run if I feel I can accomplish more that way than agitating from the outside. I don't know if that's true right now. Let's wait and see what happens in 1993. If the politicians in place now at city and state levels respond to African-American voters' needs, we'll gladly work with and support them. If they don't, we'll work to replace them. That's the message I want Project Vote! to have sent."

I could tell you other big things he did but you didn't ask for a list.