Before Obama Was Obama

This is a radio interview with Barack Obama before he was the Barack Obama we now know and are following. This interview ran on March 15, 2004 on WBEZ-FM, Chicago's outlet for National Public Radio.

At the time, Obama was a relatively unknown state senator, running against several better-known Illinois Democrats for the party's nomination for the seat U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, announced that he was vacating.

During the interview on Chicago Public Radio's 848 show, host Steve Edwards thoroughly questions Sen. Obama on a laundry list of national issues. It's fascinating to hear what Obama had to say then and compare it with what he has to say now on immigration, the environment, farm policy, federal spending, if he's too elitist for regular black folks, health, gays and lesbians, "the dumb" war in Iraq, the Patriot Act and his basketball skills.

There are a couple of places in the interview where Obama admits that he's open to further investigating his position but, by and large, his positions then are his positions now.

I'd love to hear comparable interviews from John McCain when he was running for the Republican nomination in 2000 or Sarah Palin when she was running for governor of Alaska a couple of years ago.

The archival interview on Chicago Public Radio's blog lasts 23:30. Click here for a listen.

Monroe Anderson is an award-winning journalist who penned op-ed columns for both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Check out his blog at monroeanderson.typepad.com

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Comments

[Monroe Anderson - Huffpost Blogger]

Yalegirl03: The right-wing was praying for Hillary. Their fear and smear machine was cocked and loaded, waiting for her candidacy. That's why they were promoting her over Barack. When he won, they promoted the notion of her being vice-president so they could make good use of all their ready-to-go mudslinging. Now that that's failed, you're right, they only have lies to sputter.

[IndyReader]

Sorry. This is the US where the only quals for running for president is 35+ and a US citizen, so Obama has just as much right to run as Hillary. And he ran a winning campaign while she did not. Tough. I hope she kicks herself for the next 4 years for being so arrogantly oblivious and so sure that all she had to do was show up and she'd get the nomination.

[Johnnn]

And Obama doesn't get my vote. My perogative as an American citizen.

[Johnnn]

Listening to that interview of Obama reminds me of how very similar his and Hillary's views on everything happen to be. So why is the Democratic Party split for good as far as a lot of folks are concerned? Was Obama the candidate for all Democrats who hate the Clintons? Hillary has the same positions as Obama. Maybe it's a case of too much democracy. Only one of these candidates should have run. Instead, we split the Democratic Party along racial, gender and age lines. A triple
whammy. Ego does us in once again.

[milo h minderbinder]

Hilary voted for the war. That's enough to turn many people off, and a major political weakness for her.

[Johnnn]

Yes, the war issue. But the other side of that coin are voters like me who would never vote for a pacifist for President. Ofcourse, Obama would never advocate pacifism, but I don't support a President who will call for UN embargoes when military action is called for. I hope Obama is not a UN embargo type guy.

[Yalegirl03]

The main reason why I could not support Hilary was the war. Also, I doubted that Hilary was electable when it came to the general election. The Clintons have too much bad blood to swing Independents and even some democrats, despite the goodtimes of the Clinton years and they carry too much baggage. Imagine all the nasty ads McCain would have if Hilary were the nominee and he wouldn't even have to resort to as many boldfaced lies as he does now. Also, I am not for political dynasties, but that was just a side concern.