That's Obama -- With a 'b'

[seemslikeadream]

Barack Obama celebrates his primary win with wife Michelle, far left, and Sheila Simon, far right. (Photo by Olga Lopez)

BY Jonathan Tilove
c.2004 Newhouse News Service

CHICAGO -- Meet Barack Obama.

With his smashing victory in Tuesday's primary to become the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, the 42-year-old state senator and University of Chicago law instructor stands poised to enter the national stage, and history. If elected -- and the odds now favor him -- he would be only the third black senator since Reconstruction.

"The moment he sets foot in the U.S. Senate he is going to be a national figure, not only national but international," says U.S. Rep. Janice Schakowsky, an early supporter, whose district embodies the "lakefront liberals" -- mostly white and Jewish -- who are part of Obama's base.

Tall, fresh and elegant, Obama is certain to be an overnight sensation in national Democratic circles.

He is their best chance to pick up a Senate seat now in Republican hands (the incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald, did not seek re-election). But he is also the candidate from central casting for a new generation of national black leadership, still moored in the values of the civil rights movement but in tone and approach more cool than hot.

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