It took 1,709 days for my Obama prediction to come true
"Burt: Perhaps two to three years ago, you wrote a column in which you admitted that every time you see Barack Obama, or hear his name, the tune 'Hail to the Chief' would play in your ears," e-mails reader Bruce Steinberg, a writer/lawyer from St. Charles. "It's quite possible that you were the first in the media to make such a statement."
The column he refers to appeared in this spot on Dec. 8, 2005, and was headlined "Obama's ready to be president if we can convince him to run."
"As members of the Daily Herald editorial board question Sen. Barack Obama in our boardroom, it's difficult for me to hear above the din of 'Hail to the Chief' playing in my head," I wrote. "This guy should be president."
But I actually began preaching that mantra 21 months earlier, when Obama struggled to emerge from a crowded Democratic primary race for U.S. senator where he originally found himself in a pack of candidates behind front-running millionaire Blair Hull and veteran politician Dan Hynes.
Way back on March 2, 2004, I was the first media person anywhere to publicly suggest Obama had the right stuff for the White House. In a column headlined "Best candidate has worst name," I expressed hope that he might overcome the unfortunate fact that his name sounded like "Iraq Osama," win the primary and later become our senator.
"Given a chance on the national scene, he'll soon be on a short list to become our nation's first African-American president," I predicted 1,709 days before Obama accomplished the feat.
If I could have been that prescient with my 401(k) selections and my Cubs predictions, I would have avoided a lot of heartache.
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Reporting from Obama's Election Night rally at Grant Park was unlike anything I have ever covered, and I've been to events featuring Princess Di, Michael Jordan, Oprah and the Dalai Lama. (Not all of them together, mind you, but at separate events.) A couple of things stand out.
1.) Journalists often appear jaded at these events, or at least too reserved and aloof (elitist?) to acknowledge how cool it is to be there. But I saw many journalists from all sorts of countries finishing their live reports and then whipping out small, personal cameras to take photos of themselves clutching their Obama media credentials. This was a big deal around the globe.
2.) The words "Grant Park" and "Chicago cops" in the same sentence used to make me recall childhood memories of violent, black-and-white TV footage showing cops battling protesters in that park during the 1968 Democratic convention. After covering Tuesday's massive rally, I'll always have a different image of Chicago police officers. Not only did they preserve the order and keep peace, they were so polite about it that people noticed.
After midnight, as a giddy crowd was walking to the L, an officer gently explained to the pedestrians that he was going to let a car through the intersection first. The grateful driver waved his thanks, and then it was the walkers' turn. "Thank you," we told the cop. "You're welcome," he replied.
Earlier in the night, a police officer was being so pleasant, one media member asked incredulously, "Are you a Democrat?" He smiled, and told her, "Tonight, we are all Democrats."
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One of the reasons I was so early to recognize the potential of Obama is that I live in one of the suburbs' more liberal precincts. I don't have the final tally of how my precinct voted, but the mock election at my youngest son's grade school speaks volumes.
"It was 328 votes for Obama and 38 for McCain," our son told us.
"Wow! Those numbers are amazing," I replied.
"I know," my son said, somewhat dejectedly. "I think what happened is that some of the first-graders can't read, so that's why McCain got so many votes."