The Rantecdotes Begin: An Insiders' View of Sen. Obama and a Link to the Text of His S.C. Victory Speech

I'm not going to endorse or not endorse. To endorse or not endorse, that is your question. Like the old bard and poor Hamlet said, well, sort of...but appropriately, God knows there's something rotten in the state of Denmark-of-A these days...

That said, I shall continue...people are constantly asking me what Senator Obama is really like. So, since I have had the honor of knowing and working with him, as well as honor of working with and being influenced by some of the remarkable men who helped influence him, (and since you're asking), I'll tell you a story or two.

I preface with this...history has proven cults of personality to be a bad thing, even when they are built around good people. They begin when "...people have eyes and don't see and ears and don't hear", as one said. Listen to what the man says, really listen. He means it. He is a remarkable man but he is so remarkable in part because he is his own man. We have already had a King, a Kennedy, a Joe Hill...

I first met Sen. Obama the day he began working at the Chicago Civil Rights firm of Miner, Barnhill and Galland. I was their clerk, to put my many duties there simply and hadn't been working there long myself. Everyone at the firm was excited about his joining us. I didn't know at the time about his work with the poor and otherwise downtrodden in Chicago, but did hear the buzz around the office about this brilliant new associate who had been the youngest ever to edit the "Harvard Law Review", no small distinction.

And they who were buzzing were no joke. They took/take the bull of corporate corruption by the horns, including cases against Dole and the City Council of Chicago, (which I was lucky enough to be a small part of) and a ground-breaking case against Nabisco a book was written about. One of the Sr. partners at the time, Allison Davis, was the son of the lawyer who won the case that determined standardized testing was racially biased. And another had been Daleys' corporate counsel at one point, lectured at Loyola and then turned around and sued the corporate counsel. There's a story there, no joke.

I saw him every day, talked to him every day, (they had me at the front desk when the receptionist was out/out to lunch, among other things; Southern accent goes a long way in 'Chi town). He is exactly as he appears to be. He is kind, he is genuine, he really does care about what he's saying, mean every bit of it and I've very little doubt that he writes most, if not all of it, himself. He a man of conviction; honest and even noble.

I know this from personal experience. On probably the worst day of my life, (and that's saying a lot), he accidentally got a voice mail from me about a very sensitive subject that included a medical emergency explaining my absence from work that day. It was meant for the managing partner of the firm and somehow went to him. He never said a word to anyone but the person for whom the message was intended. And in a law firm, as with politics, though privacy is stressed to the utmost, it all too often turns to high school. Not there. Not with Barack.

So, that's how he is.

I'll leave you with the best bit from the story of the case of some of the Aldermen of Chicago against the City...and will leave you hanging on more as my Great-Uncle the King of the Cliffhanger used to do in his Pulps'...

Some members of the City Council sued on the premise that the voting districts of Chicago were racially biased. One in particular, Alderman Helen Schiller, was under the strongest attack because, as an African-American woman, single parent, and Alderman, she had a great deal of support the Corporate Councils' office had some issues with, (or so it seemed).

The attorney arguing the case had been Daleys' Corporate Counsel himself, leading to endless office antics between our two firms and to a few in the court-room. Including this one:

He came back from court one day laughing and everyone in the firm came down, think it was maybe someone's birthday so we were all gathering anyway, (this was a good while ago). We asked how the case went that morning and he said, (something like), "Well, they had Alderman Schiller up there and were grilling her in quite a McCarthy-esque fashion. Have you or have you not ever been a member of the Black Panthers, have you or have you not ever been a member of etc etc etc..." ad infinitum, I remember he listed at least 6 things and said the Corporate Counsel did it for so long, and right at time to break or something, that everyone in the courtroom was restless, bored, not paying attention...good tactic. I'm sure it was exactly his point.

The attorney on the case had a better tactic. He said when first asked if he had any questions he said no, then as everyone got up in relief he said, "Wait, your honor, I have one more...", everyone sat down again, exasperated, including the Judge I'm sure. And then he approached the stand, leaned up to her and said, "Alderman Schiller, have you or have you not ever been a member of the Brownies?" She said yes to that one. And everyone laughed.

As Truman, (who my Great-Uncle the Pulp writer also wrote some speeches for), once said, "If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em."

Text of Sen. Obama's victory speech in S.C. http://my.barackobama.com/scvictoryspeech