LETTER THEEDITOR FROM
DeWAYNE WICKHAM
A few days before Sen. Barack Obama stepped onto the stage of a small Washington, D. C. community center in July 2007 to deliver the first major urban policy speech of his budding presidential campaign, I received a call from a member of his staff.
Candice Tolliver, a young press aide to the junior senator from Illinois, wanted me to cover the July 18 speech. She was anxious to have me write about Obama in my USA Today column – which a critic once said occupied“ some of the most important real estate” in American journalism. Obama, she said, would give me a one-on-one interview immediately after he spoke if I covered his address.
At the time, I didn’ t think Obama had much chance of winning the Democratic Party’ s presidential nomination. But I was intrigued by Tolliver’ s enthusiasm for his candidacy. Years of being pursued by politicians and their press secretaries for a mention in my syndicated column had hardened me to their sales pitches. But there was something about Tolliver’ s belief in Obama that was refreshingly honest.
So, I covered that speech and several others during his first run for the White House that defined his campaign. And after each event, Obama gave me a one-on-one interview, often calling me from his motorcade shortly after leaving the stage.
He first did this after his November 2, 2007, speech on the steps of the Clarendon County Courthouse in South Carolina. Obama went there to connect with rural voters and to convince Black voters that they wouldn’ t waste their ballot by voting for him.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation as his motorcade pulled away:
Wickham: I want to ask you about the speech you gave today … I was struck by one paragraph near the end of the speech where you talk about some people who think this nation is not ready for an African American President.
Obama: Yes, we’ ve been hearing it anecdotally and there was an article on the front page of The New York Times about African Americans who like me a lot but don’ t believe that Whites will vote for me. This is something I went through in my U. S. Senate race because the perception was there was no way a Black man from Chicago could end up getting votes from downstate Illinois – which is closer to the South than it is to Chicago. But we ended up winning the White vote as well as the Black vote …
I just don’ t want African American voters to feel somehow that it can’ t be done and then not vote their preference. If they end up making the decision that they think one of the other candidates is going to better represent their interests, that’ s fine. But I want to make sure that they are not engaging in an attitude of‘ we can’ t,’ as opposed to‘ yes, we can.’”
“ Yes, we can” became the mantra of Obama’ s first presidential campaign when two months later, on January 8, 2008, he uttered the words to assure his supporters he could still win the party’ s nomination after losing the New Hampshire primary.
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