An interesting look at Obama and his record from a reporter who knows...

When this piece was written in March of 2008, the media skipped by it. It's an interesting look at Barack Obama from a reporter who covered the Illinois Congress during Obama's early years. Barack In The Day is a piece I recommend reading whether you support Obama or not. It provides some interesting background such as this:

Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.

“I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen,” state Sen. Rickey Herndon, the original sponsor of landmark legislation that dealt with racial profiling and videotaped confessions, complained to me at the time. It was yanked away by Jones and given to Obama. “Barack didn’t have to endure any of it,” Herndon said. “Yet, in the end, he got all the credit.”

“I don’t consider it bill-jacking,” Herndon told me. “But no one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the 1-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and the stats in the record book.”

During his seventh and final year in the state Senate, Obama’s stats soared. He sponsored a whopping 26 bills passed into law—including many he now cites in his presidential campaign when attacked as inexperienced.

It was a stunning achievement that started him on the path of national politics—and he couldn’t have done it without Jones.

Before Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown, even in his own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters had ever heard of Barack Obama.

And look where he is now...