by John Asgeirson

Created on: June 17, 2008   Last Updated: December 14, 2011

Barack Obama is a fresh face on the national scene but his success is not and should not be a surprise. If he had been a lightweight politically, I doubt he would have been elected as the junior senator from Illinois.

Political experience in Illinois brought us Abraham Lincoln and nobody should doubt the leadership of our 16th president.

Adlai Stevenson was also the standard bearer for the Democratic Party in 1952 and 1956 an Paul Simon and Jesse jackson have also been recent candidates for the presidency from Illinois. John Anderson also ran as one of the stronger third party candidates in recent history.

I think there is something in Illinois politics that makes its politician leaders. Dennis Hastert was a recent Speaker of the House of Representatives and Everett Dirksen was a long time leader of the Republicans in the Senate.

Success in politics in Illinois requires a form of moderation and an abilty to reach out across party lines if a candidate is going to win in a state wide election.

Illinois is one of those swing states also. Party registration favors neither party and there is no reluctance to cross party lines if a candidate is popular, well-funded, and scandal free. Rarely does the winning candidate for president do well if he cannot win in Illinois. Senator Obama's success in Illinois forecast his strength as a national candidate.

Senator's Obama's first major national speach at the 2004 Democratic Convention spoke to the red state, blue state dichotomy in an effort to speak to our power if we can become more unified as a people and get beyond some of the worst aspects of partisan politics.

I am sure that Senator Obama benefitted from the location and timing of the Iowa Caucuses. Senators from Illinois understand aspects of Iowa politics and being able to organize is a skill that needs to be learned if you are going to be successful in politics anywhere. Again Obama's experience helped him succeed where others with more formidable resumes failed.

Finally I think that Senator Obama was able to capitalize on the historic nature of his candidacy amongst the country's African American voters, his early opposition to the War in Iraq, and his youth in contrast to the other candidates in the Democratic primaries. It is certainly easier to talk about change when your record is relatively free of the baggage that other candidates had to carry around.

The national campaign is just starting. Past performance is no guarantee of future success, however it shows the good candidates can win the nomination for president if they are skilled, able to raise money to support their campaign and avoid major mistakes.

Senator Obama's performance in becoming the Demcratic Party's candidate for president shouldn't be the surprise that some people suppose.

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