On a chilly Chicago evening in January, back when Barack Obama was just a state lawmaker and not the latest political phenom, he asked the lone reporter covering his U.S. Senate campaign on a daily basis to step out of his SUV.
Obama explained that he had to do a radio interview, and having a reporter in his vehicle eavesdropping on another interview was “sort of like being in a hall of mirrors.”
On Tuesday, perhaps the biggest day so far in Obama’s political career, the 42-year-old Harvard Law School graduate found himself running–literally, at times–through the ultimate hall of media mirrors. Culminating months of intense national publicity, Obama on Tuesday night delivered the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention.
But in the hours leading up to his speech, Obama was the convention’s hottest political celebrity, with a horde of reporters and photographers, sometimes more than a dozen deep, following his every move. Autograph hounds handed him everything from baseball caps to bumper stickers to sign. Reporters shoved microphones in his face. Photographers clicked away at Obama, dressed nattily in one of his four dark blue suits, a light blue shirt and a blue-gray striped tie. Even his restroom visits were documented, at least up until he closed the door.
“I need five Baracks today,” lamented his press secretary, Julian Green. “Everyone wants a piece of him. This is crazy, man.”
Obama began his day just after 6 a.m. by munching a green pepper egg-white omelet that aides had fetched from a 24-hour diner because the hotel restaurant had not yet opened..
Soon Obama was hopscotching through the FleetCenter, where the Democratic convention is being held, for appearances on three morning shows–NBC’s “Today,” CBS’ “The Early Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Next came a sit-down with Ted Koppel of ABC’s “Nightline.”
Then Obama was off to breakfast with the Illinois delegation at the Sheraton Hotel, where he allowed that perhaps his toughest critic–his wife, Michelle–had given a modest thumbs-up to his speech.
“We brought her into the practice room,” Obama said. “Her assessment was that I wasn’t going to embarrass the Obama family.”
Obama, a man with no shortage of self-confidence, appeared to think more of his abilities. “I have high expectations of myself,” he said. “And I usually meet them.”
By noon, he was delivering a short address at a rally sponsored by the League of Conservation Voters. “I can’t give you a long stemwinder,” he said, apologizing. “I can’t throw out my throat for tonight or I’ve had it.”
Afterward he was mobbed by reporters interrupting each other with questions on topics ranging from reparations for black Americans to Obama’s African-American heritage to his proposals for boosting the economy.
Racing back to the FleetCenter in an SUV, Obama inhaled a turkey and cheese sandwich with spicy mustard as he tried to field questions from the half-dozen reporters traveling along.
When one reporter rambled on about major political figures who have given keynote speeches before him, Obama answered through a mouthful of turkey, “Are you asking me how I suffer in comparison?”
After interviews with Illinois television stations, Obama made the rookie celebrity mistake of trying to grab a cup of coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts in FleetCenter. Immediately descending on him were reporters from Black Entertainment Television, NBC News, ABC News and various publications.
Maintaining his composure, Obama answered questions for about five minutes before announcing that he had to use the restroom. He confided to an aide that he wanted to use the portable restrooms outside because, “You know, when I go into the regular restroom, all these people want to shake my hand, and that’s not the place I want to be shaking hands.”
Yet when Obama neared the portable toilets with the media horde still at his heels, he turned plaintively to his followers: “Can y’all just give me one moment to use the Port-O-Let?”
But the group kept moving apace, until Green, the press secretary, threw out his arms, at last stopping the entourage.
“Guys, guys, guys,” Green shouted. “Can you let him use the porta-potty? Please! Thank you!”
As Obama exited, chief media aide Robert Gibbs appeared with Obama’s coffee and whisked his boss away to practice his speech in private.
Obama would spend the next several hours until his prime-time address decompressing with friends and family.
“This is all just a little over the top,” he said, flashing the smile that is becoming familiar to more and more Americans. “Maybe more than a little.”
– – –
Excerpts from Obama’s address
Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant.
But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place: America, which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor he signed up for duty, joined Patton’s army and marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the GI Bill, bought a house through FHA, and moved west in search of opportunity.
. . . My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or “blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential. They are both passed away now. Yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with pride.
Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.
Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.
The pundits like to slice and dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
