“Just what’s he done? I mean, what’s he done?”
– Congressman Bobby Rush, in a debate with then state legislator Barack Obama, when both men were competing for the Democratic primary for Rush’s seat in 2000. Rush won the primary, 61 percent to 30 percent.
Barack Obama has racked up some accomplishments since 2000. But it’s interesting that seven and a half years ago, Democratic primary voters in Illinois’ First District — a district that included Hyde Park — agreed with Rush’s assessment that Obama was insufficiently accomplished and experienced to represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives, nevermind the presidency.