Though he is the new kid on the block in the Senate, Barack Obama, who ranks ahead of only Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado in seniority, has nationwide appeal. After delivering a rousing keynote address at the DNC while still an Illinois state Senator, the self-proclaimed “skinny kid with a funny name” made a quick rise to media darling. Born to a Kenyan father and a mother who is part Cherokee Indian as well as a distant descendent of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy, Senator Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent the bulk of his childhood. After law school, he worked as a community organizer, civil rights lawyer and University of Chicago professor and was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. As a state Senator he was no slouch, advocating for progressive death penalty reform laws, legislation forcing insurance companies to cover routine mammograms, an earned income tax credit for the working poor and increased funding for AIDS prevention and care programs. Having trounced his conservative carpet-bagging opponent Alan Keyes, Senator Obama is now serving as the only African-American in the Senate. Dozens of Campus Progress readers wrote in with questions, and Senator Obama answered – taking time out to talk about college costs, Condi, the pitfalls of a first-termer, and how you can get politically engaged.
One million voters who voted for George W. Bush in Illinois also voted for you. Why do you think you were able to win so many moderate and even conservative voters, especially in Downstate regions? What are winning issues for progressive candidates to reach voters that otherwise might not vote Democratic?
Kevin Collins, University of Pennsylvania
I think that I was able to earn the votes of moderate and conservative Illinoisans because I focused on issues that are important to everyone, regardless of party affiliation. Too often, campaigns become about issues that divide us. I’ve spent my years in public service trying to follow the advice of one of my mentors, Illinois’ own Senator Paul Simon, who said that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Paul Simon understood that we’ll never agree on everything, but we still have an obligation to work together to get things done. Only then can we move forward, step-by-step, to ensure that we arrive at the practical common sense solutions that all of us hope for.
I don’t think that there is a magic bullet issue for Democrats that will lead us to victory. But I do think that if Democrats continue to talk about issues that matter to people – education, health care, job creation – and do so in a way that is honest and earnest, that the American people will listen.
As the most visible and decisive progressive victory of 2004, you’re clearly under quite a lot of pressure to represent us all and to somehow make up for all of our devastating losses this year. Do you think that any first-term Senator could possibly live up to those unrealistic expectations? What has been the most difficult part of your term so far, and how can we help you?
Stefanie Turner, Knox College
I came to Washington with a celebrity that, to be honest, was a bit inflated, and a bit undeserved. What many people don’t realize is that in the Senate, it’s seniority, not celebrity, that’s important. Right now, I’m 99th in seniority in the minority party, so when I got here they handed me a toothbrush and said, hey Obama, go clean the bathrooms.
What I’ve really focused on is making sure that I have offices and staff in place so that when people in Illinois call my office or send me a letter they get a response. I have also spent a lot of time learning the Senate processes to figure out how to get things done here and how to get around. I think we’ve been successful so far. I don’t get lost in the halls quite as often.
But what I do know is that if the people of Illinois see that I’m working hard for them while I’m in Washington, if they see that I’m holding town hall meetings in their communities to hear their concerns, and if they see that I’m fighting for their values, then I think they’ll know I’m representing them well.
You can help by staying engaged and speaking your mind. Read the newspapers, learn the facts, and keep talking about issues that matter to you with your friends until they become engaged, too. Before I ran for office, I worked for church-based organizations in my community and helped organize the people of the City of Chicago for progressive candidates. Getting engaged on the local level is one of the most important ways you can create change.
Politicians are always telling young people how important it is to go to college, but they rarely mention how we’re supposed to pay for tuition as costs skyrocket. What are you going to do to help kids not only get into, but pay for college?
Michelle Paladino, NYU
Let me first say that I feel their pain. For the first ten years after my wife and I graduated from law school, our debt from tuition was bigger than our mortgage. It was extraordinarily difficult to climb out from under that, so I empathize there for sure.
Over the past 25 years, tuition at four-year colleges has increased more than 500 percent. At the University of Illinois, tuition and fees have risen 118 percent over the past decade.
Compounding this problem is the fact that the value of grants that students rely on, like the Pell Grant, have eroded. Today, 5.3 million undergraduate students use Pell Grants. But the current $4,050 Pell Grant maximum is $700 less in real terms than the maximum grant 30 years ago.
Next week, I will introduce a bill called the Higher Education Opportunity Through Pell Grant Expansion (HOPE) Act, to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100. This would help more than 430,000 students afford to go to college.
Why did you vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State? Given her well documented records of misstatements and falsehoods building up to the Iraq war, not to mention her incompetence during her tenure as NSC, why did she merit your confirmation vote?
Jason Magnuson, Northern Illinois University
I voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State because I believe that the President has the right to appoint his own cabinet. He can hire whomever he wants to work for him, but ultimately it is him that I will hold accountable for any foreign policy errors. If he wants to accept Condoleezza Rice as his spokesperson for his policies, then I don’t have a problem with that. But if she makes a mistake, I will absolutely hold him accountable.
I voted against Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General because I believe that he is not the President’s lawyer, but the people’s lawyer. And the truth is that Mr. Gonzales has raised serious doubts about whether, given the choice between the Constitution and the President’s political agenda, he would put our Constitution first.