Remind Me Again Please: How Did Obama Come To Be Chosen For The 2004 Convention Speech?

[BlooInBloo]

Whoever it was who suggested him, I'd like to give them a hug.

(Just watched: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydfsfSQiYc )

[dkf]

1. John Kerry. :)

[babylonsister]

2. Yep. nt

[BlooInBloo]

3. Somehow I thought I remembered hearing that someone suggested Obama to Kerry....

My addled recollection goes something like: Kerry was looking for someone to give a speech. Mr X chimes in with Obama. Kerry asks "who the fuck is Obama?" Mr X shows Kerry an Obama speech and gives his bio. Kerry says "sold".

I might just be making that shit up though - my memory really isn't my strongest card.


EDIT: Or "Mrs. X".

[Boz]

7. Your right it was a MR X but ithe name of the Aide or adviser is gone outta my head

But I saw similar info a few months ago and I remember it was in the local chicago paper the next morning and yes I was lucky enough to have met him back then told my wife there goes the President of 2012 or 2016. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe it could happen this quick and this smoothly.

On edit I seem to remember the name Gibson.

[beachmom]

27. Actually, if you look at the Obama bio, Kerry went to Illinois

and did an event or two with Obama. It was clear to the reporter who wrote the bio, that Kerry was looking at Obama with admiration right away. Now surely somebody (Durbin?) suggested he go to IL to see him, and then it was also true that staffers fielded several different people to possibly be in the keynote spot narrowing that field down .... BUT, I do think we should give Kerry the lion's share of the credit being the final decision maker, and doing so having met and watched Obama at work.

[abumbyanyothername]

Howard Dean deserves some credit

BHO was a DFA "rising star" or whatever they call it.

[dansolo]

10. I believe it was the "Dean dozen"

Obama was in the first batch of candidates that got support from DFA.

[Starry Messenger]

4. This link suggests Mary Beth Cahill

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=e6de946c-8b9c-45ca-b9d1-9921b60bdc0a

followed by Kerry.

MPK

[BlooInBloo]

8. Thanks!

[abumbyanyothername]

11. I heard the Barack Convention Speech from the front row

of a take back the Senate rally in Santa Monica in 2004. Senator Hillary Clinton was the featured speaker of the evening and Senator Debbie Stabenow was also on the program, along with Senator Barbara Boxer.

It was an inspiring event, and I went on to do phone banking (calling to FLA, OH and PA) and on the ground GOTV (in NV) for Kerry. I remember driving back from LV and just being crushed and all alone (my wife actually got unknowingly drug to a GOP election night returns party by a friend who was posing as a dem for several years actually -- we talked yesterday and she said she felt even more all alone).

[kath]

23. These quotes from that article say a lot:

"Throughout the 1990s, I was saying the most impressive all-around student I had was Barack," Tribe now reflects.

<snip>

Obama came up again in a discussion Corrigan was having with a friend, Lisa Hay, who worked on the Harvard Law Review with Obama. "I was arguing with her about trying to give money to Kerry. She said she had to save her money for her friend Barack." She told Corrigan that when he spoke at a law school banquet, all of the waiters stopped serving to listen to what he had to say. "That was a pretty ringing endorsement," says Corrigan--enough to suggest that Obama could hold his own at the convention.

********
So, even at frickin' Harvard Law School, this guy was among the best of the best.

Oh, wait, that would make me an "elitist" to point out that that's a good thing. My bad.

[AtomicKitten]

5. .

[secondwind]

6. It was John Kerry.............and Obama was GREAT!!!!

[madmax]

9. Yes, he was

He had my husband and I in tears with that speech. We just looked at each other and said, this guy is going to be President one day. :bounce:

[monmouth]

12. I knew after hearing his first sentence he was somebody and going to

be somebody. I was mesmerized and still am actually...

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. Kerry spotted a sure WINNER--Obama was running against RW nutjob Alan Keyes

because no sane potential GOP candidate would accept their nomination.

IIRC, Democrats picked up only two Senate seats previously held by Republicans in 2004.

Add in the great things Kerry was hearing about Obama and his grassroots oratory and there was no other choice but Obama for keynoter.

[dsc]

14. actually Obama had that easy shot because the GOP candidate

had gone to sex club with his wife and watched her have sex with lots of men (which she apparently didn't like). An undamaged Ryan might have given him a race he probably would have beaten Ryan but it likely would have been a race.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

15. Sure, Ryan was a reasonable candidate until the scandal broke. But the Rs

still had time to put someone else on the ballot once Ryan was exposed, and the best they could come up with was--Alan Keyes!

[dsc]

16. there wasn't a lot of time

and they had their own problems with a governor heading to jail and a secretary of state also in deep do do. Thanks to Blago we might be in the same fix to replace Obama.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. Ryan quit the race a montha and two days before Obama's July 27th keynote.

Wikipedia has the timeline, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois,_2004 .

Technically, there was no new Republican candidate for Senator from Illinois on the evening of the keynote. Alan Keyes was not officially offered the job until very early August, though on keynote night Keyes may have been known in the media as the top contender.

You are correct; there were less than three months left until the November 2nd election when the US Senate ballot line finally was set in Illinois.

[dsc]

22. I am surprised that they didn't recruit

Bob Michael as a place holder. He would have been their best shot at at least keeping the race within reason.

[abumbyanyothername]

18. Ryan sex scandal joke

RNC to Jack Ryan: "Will any embarrassing details come out in your divorce papers?"

RYAN: "Absolutely not."

RNC: "OK. We will back you."

Jeri Ryan alleges that Jack want to have sex with her in front of other people at sex clubs. (Not, as previously posted, to have her have sex with others while he watched.)

RNC: "wtf??"

RYAN: "When you said embarrassing details, I thought you meant stuff like starting an unjustified war and killing thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. I thought you meant stuff like stealing elections by rigging the unverifiable vote counting machinery. I thought you meant stuff like suspending habeas corpus and ignoring the Constitution. . . . I didn't know you meant stuff about my private life that doesn't and wouldn't affect my job performance and isn't anyone's business anyway."

[beachmom]

28. Actually, there is the Star Trek connection as well.

Remember the character 7 of 9 on Star Trek: Voyager? Well, she is Jeri Ryan, wife of Republican Senate candidate Ryan. So if you think about it, it was she who was blunt in those divorce records which led to his downfall, thereby paving a clear path for Barack Obama. So I just think we ought to thank the Borg for Barack Obama becoming President. (7 of 9 is part Borg)

[WeDidIt]

17. Dick Durbin

Barack Obama was "discovered" by Dick Durbin who recommended Barack to John Kerry for the keynote.

[blm]

21. True - few people are even aware how close Kerry, Durbin and Obama have been over the years.

Durbin was Kerry's liaison to DNC during 2004 and Durbin witnessed firsthand the problems at the DNC when it came to collapsed party infrastructure and lack of diligence by the Clinton loyalists who were running the entire show back then, as they had for over a decade by that point.

Since then, Daschle, Durbin and Kerry have been certain that breaking the grip the Clintons had on the party was a crucial step to reclaiming the party. Dean as Chair of the party was a key FIRST step. Using their own national networks they were able to put them into play supporting Obama which greatly enabled Obama's campaign to out organize Clinton in so many states.

[YvonneCa]

20. It was my President...

...President Kerry. (And, yes, I think he won.) :patriot:

[politicasista]

24. Kick

:kick:

[Clio the Leo]

25. Fate and Destiny. NT

[FrenchieCat]

26. Senator Durbin suggested it to John Kerry or one of Kerry's aides.....

far as I know.

[FrenchieCat]

29. That is why the meme that Obama is not passionate is just a trap

by the status quo.

Listen to this one, when you have a chance. It is also full of reasoned passion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0x_TpDris&feature=related