Obama Plays Up Midwestern Roots in Kansas
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, right, waves with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., following a rally at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, Kan., Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008. (AP).
By Alec MacGillis
EL DORADO, Kan. -- Dorothy, we're not in South Carolina anymore.
After winning a landslide victory in the Deep South on Saturday, partly by turning out historic numbers of African American voters on his behalf, Barack Obama arrived here today seeking to establish a connection of a different kind: with his heartland roots.
Obama's grandfather is from El Dorado (that's do-RAY-do to you) and Obama stopped in to remind a community college gym full of voters of that link, and to accept the endorsement of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the latest politician from a red state or swing state to back Obama. There was more than family nostalgia in the visit: Obama's campaign believes that it can hold its own on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, partly by picking off voters and caucusgoers in a few conservative or swing states where Obama's national reconciliation message might play well. His speech at the gym was heavy with reunification rhetoric.
"We have been told for many years that we are becoming more divided as a nation. We have been made to believe that differences of race and region, wealth and gender, party and religion have separated us into warring factions; into red states and blue states made up of individuals with opposing wants and needs, with conflicting hopes and dreams," he said. "It is a vision of America that's been exploited and encouraged by pundits and politicians who need this division to score points and win elections. But it is a vision of America that I am running for president to fundamentally reject."
Obama invoked Sebelius as an exemplar of his philosophy. "She has shown America that the Democratic Party can run anywhere and win anywhere and lead anywhere as long as we're the party of change," he said. Sebelius, who delivered the Democrats' response to the president's State of the Union speech last night, returned the favor, saying that Obama has "Midwestern values, values that we know about. He got them from his grandparents and his mom. He understands how to bring people across party lines."
Obama's pitch in El Dorado bore many traces of his victory address in South Carolina Saturday night, including a repeat of his implicit shot at Hillary Clinton, that the election is "about whether we settle for the same divisions and drama that passes for politics today." But his presentation was markedly different from those on the trail in South Carolina, where he built a strong rapport with his raucous, giddy audiences by engaging in call and response patter, stressing topics like his church-going, and dropping into the regional vernacular here and there. ("In Washington, that's how they do," he'd said, mocking Beltway behavior.)
In Kansas, it was a different set of cultural connections -- references to his father's work on the local oil rigs, to his grandmother's work as a Rosie Riveter on a bomber assembly plant, to his mother's birth at Fort Leavenworth, and to his distant cousins who still live in the area, several of whom are campaigning for him and one of whom showed up today. ("Ruth was my grandfather's aunt," he said, only to be corrected by her. "No, my grandmother's first cousin. I knew I was going to screw it up. I've been going through my family tree here to figure it all out.")
Also in attendance was "Mr. Kearns," the class historian for Obama's grandfather's high school class of 1935, who brought some photos along with him. "He's kind enough not to tell stories about my grandfather. Because my understanding is he got in quite a bit of trouble in high school," Obama said. "But Mr. Kearns is discreet." Later, in talking about his plan to reform the credit industry, Obama inserted another plug for his audience: "Americans should pay what they owe -- that's a Midwestern value -- but they should also pay what's fair, not just what's profitable for some credit card company."
There was, to be sure, an element of overstatement involved in Obama's effort to capitalize on the Kansas connection -- Obama's grandparents left Kansas while Obama's mother was still young, making stops in Texas, Seattle and elsewhere before landing in Hawaii, where Obama was born, and he himself had never been to El Dorado prior to today. But members of the audience said they expected that Obama's local link would help him, once people learned about it. Several said they'd only learned of the link between their home state and the Illinois senator with the exotic name from an article in the newspaper a few days before.
"This is Obama country, baby," said Sharon Carr Burnett, a teacher from Wichita, less than an hour away. "They call him a native son."
Posted at 6:13 PM ET on Jan 29, 2008
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Posted by: jalexis55 | January 30, 2008 11:12 PM
So whatever did happen to his grandfather? Did Obama ever meet his grandfather?
Posted by: krm22201 | January 30, 2008 4:08 PM
Check out this site
http://www.seferm.com/news/us/governementelection/elections.asp
for 2008 election coverage including videos
Posted by: ensure365 | January 30, 2008 1:01 PM
As long as Obama is talking so loudly ,hawking, rabble rouser style, about his family history in Kansas, why does he forget to mention to the people that he had a Caucasion Birth Mother who was born in Kansas. Her name was Ann Dunham from Wichita, Kansas. I guess he must be ashamed of this part of his life's history. The African American people should know if it weren't for Ann Dunham, his Birth Mother, a White Mid West woman, he would not be here!
Posted by: LOONYBIN2000 | January 30, 2008 8:21 AM
Contrary to common belief, Hillary is actually a beneficiary of sexism in America. Just picture that the husband of a former female president claims eight years of "experience" from being the first spouse. People would just laugh at that notion! But this argument by Hillary seems to be accepted by many.
Posted by: adwei | January 29, 2008 10:56 PM
The only thing I would have liked to hear at his speech today was some sort of confirmation that he will do something about Darfur. I kept waiting and waiting and as his speech rolled on I knew I wasn't going to get any sort of response to the crisis in Darfur or any other of the the many African issues right now. I think that if Mr. Obama would have said something about it I would definitely go to the caucus for him on Tuesday.
Posted by: akadolph01 | January 29, 2008 10:41 PM
Obama calls all people together.
Hillary insults women, men, blacks, whites, youth and the Middle East.
Hmmm, tough choice, who can help us move forward? Who can put the Republican divisiveness aside? Surely not Hillary, when she uses the same tactics herself.
Where is the judgement brought by experience, when her campaign keeps faltering? Where is the change, when she uses tactics from the past? Where is the leadership when she mimics Obama's every move. How can she run a country when she can't run a campaign?
We're ready, as a nation, to move on.
Obama 08
Posted by: kiku | January 29, 2008 9:27 PM
Somebody should give Mr MacGillis a towel. He's a mess.
Posted by: zukermand | January 29, 2008 7:45 PM
Well, well, what do we see ? All important liemericans together. Anything to explain about building 7 ladies and gentlemen ? Anything to say about using 9 barrels and finding only 1 new barrel ? Keepin up the good news then, cheerio. I whish PRESIDENT OBAMA a lot of wisdom.
Posted by: jwholtkamp | January 29, 2008 7:36 PM
McCain looks pretty bad. He's supposed to be a vigorous 71 but he looks more like 91 and he should not be driving himself so hard.
Romney is a bore, and running as a businessman is not going to be as appealing as some seem to think.
Posted by: chrisfox8 | January 29, 2008 6:34 PM
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Barack Obama was raised by his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham in Hawaii. This is no secret and information is in his book about his grandparents. I'm curious as to why CNN and the other media did not appear in El Dorado and take pictures of him with his blood relative cousins in Kansas, especially since they went all the way to Africa to video an elderly lady who is his STEP-grandmother and no blood relative to Obama.