Illinois Brothers and Sisters, please shed some light

[Black7Sun]

If you've been on this board for awhile, I'm sure you know my position concerning Obama. I've used the term, to which I still hold to, that he virtually appeared out of nowhere. Still, I'm a person who firmly believe in justice and giving someone their fair day in court.

So, that being said, I wonder if Brothers and Sisters from Illinois can give information with as much detail as possible on what Obama has done in that state to rise him to the position as Senator.

Now let's be clear. I'm someone who is willing to go to where ever truth takes me. Whether he did so much good or he's just so full of sh*t, please lay it out with much facts to back it up as you can.

[Black7Sun]

Well this either means that nobody gives a sh*t or he hasn't done a damn thing that anyone can speak on.

[Im The Truth]

I'm not from Illinois and I don't understand why we should care more about Obama than any other president. Yes he's Black but time will tell politics. It's hard to find dirt on a person who is brand new to the political scene.

[G1deon]

I see where he's coming from, a background check to see if Obama did do what is said he has done... and if he didn't, it's more to discredit his credibility and inform whomever voted him in

[G.O.D.F.A.T.H.A.]

Obama has built "black schools" in Illionois. Nah, just kidding. Do some research on what Obama did to help out the black community in Illinois though. You never know what you will come up with.

[NuAfrikanQueen]

DENVER -- As the Democratic Party prepares to unleash its presidential nominating convention here, the University of Illinois at Chicago said today that it will release records of Sen. Barack Obama's service to a nonprofit organization linked to William Ayers, a Chicago education professor who was a radical protestor in the 1960s.
Illinois releasing Barack Obama's records: The Swamp

Early in his first term, the just-retired U.S. Senator Paul Simon called a longtime Obama mentor, judge and former congressman Abner Mikva. Simon suggested that Mikva recommend Obama to Emil Jones, Jr., the powerful Democratic leader of the state Senate. "'Say, our friend Barack Obama has a chance to push this campaign finance bill through,'" Simon said in a telephone conversation, as recounted by Mikva in a 2008 interview. "'Why don’t you call your friend Emil Jones and tell him how good he is.'" With Jones' support, Obama helped pass a sweeping law that banned most gifts from lobbyists and personal use of campaign funds by state legislators.[6]

During his first years as a state senator, Obama was a co-sponsor of a bill which re-structured the Illinois welfare program into the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. He was also involved in various pieces of legislation which established a $100 million Earned Income Tax Credit for working families, increased child care subsidies for low-income families, and required advance notice before mass layoffs and plant closings.[7]



After losing the primary for U.S. Congress to Bobby Rush, Obama worked to repair relations with black politicians and clergy members, telling them he bore no grudges against the victor. He also became more responsive to requests for state funding, getting money for churches and community groups in his district. State Senator Donne E. Trotter, then the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in 2008 that he knew Obama was responding more to funding requests "because the community groups in his district stopped coming to me".[6]

In September 2001, Democrats won a lottery to redraw legislative districts that had been drawn ten years earlier by Republicans and had helped ensure ten uninterrupted years of Republican control of the Illinois Senate.[13] In the November 2002 election, the Democratic remap helped them win control of the Illinois Senate and expand their majority in the Illinois House to work with the first Democratic Illinois governor in 26 years.[14] In January 2003, after six years on the committee and four years as its minority spokesman, Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. The new Democratic majority allowed Obama to write and pass more legislation than in previous years. He sponsored successful efforts to expand children's health care, create a plan to provide equal health care access for all Illinois residents, and create a "Hospital Report Card" system, and worker's rights laws that protected whistleblowers, domestic violence victims, equal pay for women, and overtime pay.[15] His most public accomplishment was a bill requiring police to videotape interrogations and confessions in potential death penalty cases. Obama was willing to listen to Republicans and police organizations and negotiate compromises to get the law passed.[16] That helped him develop a reputation as a pragmatist able to work with various sides of an issue.[6] Obama also led the passage of a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped.[17]

He resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[18]
Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia