http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0406240383jun24,0,5972661.story
Obama lets opponent do talking
By David Mendell, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson contributed to this report
June 24, 2004
Divorce file unsealed
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan's ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, accused him of taking her to sex clubs, according to records released from the couple's divorce file. Jack Ryan denied the allegations when they were made in 2000. (Tribune photo by Candice C. Cusic / June 22, 2004)
Barack Obama, who penned a 403-page memoir at age 33 and has a special skill for giving intricate answers to questions, has never been a man short on words.
But this week, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate finds himself at a strange place in his political career: trying to say as little as possible.
Obama's greatest challenge in the coming days is keeping his public comments in check as he watches Republican opponent Jack Ryan manage a political firestorm after the release of divorce files. They show Ryan's ex-wife accused him of pressuring her to have sex with him in sex clubs while others watched.
"You're probably going to hear me say the same thing over and over," Obama cautioned reporters as he opened a question-and-answer session amid a Tuesday evening fundraiser on Navy Pier.
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Indeed, if keeping his words concise and repetitive is Obama's biggest challenge between now and the November election, perhaps no candidacy has been more blessed than the Democrat's current run for the U.S. Senate.
In the Democratic primary, Obama found himself the overwhelming beneficiary when the campaign of former securities trader Blair Hull crashed in the aftermath of Hull's release of court files from a messy divorce. Though Obama has been a passive beneficiary of Ryan's latest problems, the Democrat's campaign worked aggressively behind the scenes to fuel controversy about Hull's filings.
Now, with 4 1/2 months left until the general election, Obama is facing a severely wounded Republican foe who not only has the embarrassing sexual allegations to cope with, but also has a severe credibility problem with leaders of his own party. Illinois GOP Chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka and former Gov. Jim Edgar have publicly said they believe Ryan misled them about the contents of the divorce papers. And on Wednesday, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert leveled similar charges.
On Wednesday, Obama insisted that he has delivered a convincing message to voters and has worked tirelessly on the campaign trail. But he also conceded that fortune is smiling on him lately: "We've gotten some good breaks in this campaign, no doubt about it."
Indeed, Obama has been the beneficiary of several Ryan stumbles, including the Republican's much criticized decision last month to dispatch an aide to trail Obama closely and continually with a video camera. Ryan also drew criticism for misstating a vote Obama took in the state Senate.
Obama's candidacy has also been buoyed by special attention he has gotten from national and international media outlets ranging from the New Yorker to the New Republic to the Economist of London. The unusual attention on his candidacy is generated by the possibility he could become the Senate's only African-American member, and the intense coverage should prove helpful in raising campaign cash outside of Illinois.
All of that has helped Obama gain a comfortable lead in the public opinion polls.
Though Ryan's latest troubles would only seem to make it that much harder for the Republican to catch up, Obama says he worries that it could lead to overconfidence among supporters. If potential donors perceive him to be a shoo-in, Obama said, fundraising could dry up.
"Four months is an eternity in politics and this election is of such importance, not just for Illinois but for the country, so I will be running scared all the way through Nov. 2," he said.
Obama himself has avoided personal controversies in the campaign, in large part because he has long been open about some of his own problems. In a 1996 memoir, Obama recounted heavy drinking as a teenager as well as experimenting with cocaine and marijuana during those years. Though he was already weighing a political career when he wrote the book, Obama said he divulged such potentially damaging information to provide an example for young black men that it is possible to steer away from self-destructive behavior.
Obama's strategy amid the Ryan revelations has been to appear to take the high ground, confining his rhetoric to issues like shrinking wages and rising health-care costs and avoiding anything that could drag him into the divorce controversy.
As the Ryan files were released on Monday, Obama was in the midst of a two-day tour around the state to emphasize his message that the middle-class is being squeezed out of the job market. Still, as he traveled from Carbondale to Peoria to East Moline to Rockford, Obama faced questions from the media about Ryan's divorce files, Ryan's political viability, Ryan's character and even the sexual proclivities of human beings in general.
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