Joan Walsh recently wrote a piece in Salon--NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/12/29/year_in_politics/index2.html

Her piece is sweet and not too long and a good read, as always. She begins:

I underestimated Obama. Don't get me wrong. I was blown away by Obama's 2004 Boston convention speech, just like the rest of the sobbing, beaten-down, gay-friend-having, awesome-God-worshipping, Little League-coaching red- and blue-state Democrats there in the Fleet Center that night. I'd admired Obama since editing Scott Turow's profile of the Illinois Senate candidate in Salon in 2003. I truly believed he could and maybe would be president some day -- but not in 2008.

But my piece centers around Scott Turow, whose site is contained in the above paragraph because it was written almost five years ago.  Scotty really got it right and it is worth taking a look at what his thoughts were back then. The piece is dated March 30, 2004.

I met Barack Obama, the new Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, eight years ago, at the home of mutual friends. Making introductions, our hostess suggested we had a good deal in common. Like me, Obama was an author -- he had recently published an autobiography, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" -- and he was a graduate of Harvard Law School, my legal alma mater. Unlike me, however, Obama was about to step into politics as a candidate for the Illinois State Senate from Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago and a stretch of poor neighborhoods that run west from there. I spent much of the evening speaking to Obama and his wife, Michelle, yet another Harvard Law School graduate, and bought Obama's book the next day, which I praised when we met again. In the ensuing years I have stayed in touch with him, observing the ups and downs of his political career.

So Scotty began watching this guy in 1996. A man running for state senator and a man with a book.  He openly discloses that he was a supporter of Obama and had a good relationship with him during this eight year period noting that it was not like they were bosom buddies.
But Turow saw something in this guy.

He has gone from someone impatient with the legislative process to an effective and respected leader in the Illinois Senate, and from a candidate who once seemed to be getting ahead of himself politically, and whose base in the black community was shaky, to a figure who appeals to voters of all hues.

An interesting paragraph. Growth. Political and emotional growth over time.

The article goes on to discuss the biography, Dreams From My Father and encapsulates without cheapening Barack's life.You can tell, Turow is taken by this guy's life and his writing.
He relates the early years in Indonesia and his youth in Hawaii with his grandparents.

Turow goes into Obama's early years in legislature and his attempt to become a Congressman.It really was covering two to four years of failure.  He was even being castigated by the press for non performance.

When Democrats took over the chamber in 2003, Obama won General Assembly approval of 26 bills, including legislation to expand healthcare benefits for uninsured children and adults, an earned income tax credit for low earners, and major criminal justice reforms.

But Turow is meeting with Barack just prior to this in a more professional capacity:

The latter measures were of particular interest to me. In the summer of 2002, Obama had called me to get together to talk about death-penalty reform. For more than two years, I had sat as one of the 14 members of the Commission on Capital Punishment, a body that Gov. Ryan had appointed in 2000, after declaring a moratorium on executions in Illinois because of a growing record of mistakes in the capital process, most notably the death sentences of 13 individuals who were subsequently exonerated. In April 2002, the commission issued its report, including 85 recommendations for reform of Illinois' laws.

Over the next year or so, Turow meets with him a few more times and gets Barack to talk about his future plans.  And Turow is not that enamored by him as far as being a U.S. Senate candidate.  He had seen the failed attempt to grab a Congressional Seat and he felt Barack might be over reaching again. So Scott is being completely transparent in the sense that he does not see Obama as a new wave in politics until the 2004 primary.

But to win in November, Obama knew he had to be more than "the black candidate." ... From the start, he tapped into the same energy that Howard Dean was finding, the abiding anger of so many Democrats with both George W. Bush's policies and with those Democratic politicians who seemed intent on reinforcing Bush's supposed popularity by venturing no criticisms of him. Obama blasted Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy as reductions "nobody needed and nobody asked for," and he also spoke out prominently against the war in Iraq even before he had entered the Senate race.

Turow really puts his finger on something.  He ties Obama to Dean.  He feels there is something in the air.  There is anger and despair among the electorate.  There is a craving for someone to deliver hope, hope that all is not lost, that something can be done.

Last summer, my wife Annette and I held an event for Barack in our home to introduce him to friends. He was poised, conversant with the issues, and disarmingly candid. He correctly predicted that evening that if he won the primary, he would emerge as a candidate whose unique credentials would attract support from across the country. That night, he did what every successful politician must do: He persuaded virtually everyone in that room that he could win and, even more important, that he deserved to.

Mr. Turow finishes his piece with two beautifully crafted paragraphs:

Adding it all up, the smart money has to be on Barack Obama to win in November and thereby to become a pivotal American leader. To be young, black and brilliant has always appeared to me to be one of the more extraordinary burdens in American life. Much is offered; even more is expected. You are like a walking Statue of Liberty, holding up the torch 24 hours a day. Yet Barack Obama, who spent his early years coming to terms with his heritage, is in every sense comfortable in his own skin and committed to a political vision far broader than racial categories.

Because they work for George W. Bush, and therefore cannot be regarded as influential political figures in the African-American community, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice may be the first blacks in government whose race is an afterthought in the public mind. If he wins, Barack Obama will also answer to a constituency that is principally white. As a result, he may become the first black Democrat able to rise above race in the fashion of Powell and Rice, and in doing so become the embodiment of one of America's most enduring dreams.

And the title of this March, 2004 article was The New Face of the Democratic Party--And America. That is more than a few months before the SPEECH.  The speech made at the Democratic Convention that put Obama on the national stage.

Sometimes I think  those who get it right should be rewarded. Scott Turow really got it right almost five years ago.  And he was able to do this after following our New President for thirteen years.To look back over that period of time and to be able to see what Scott saw, really grabbed me.Some may criticise me for citing so many of his paragraphs, but I thought it was worthwhile to see what real journalism can be.  More than just short talking points.  More than propaganda spewed by political parties.  Turow really followed Obama, Turow lived in Chicago suburbs for years, Turow knew the Democratic Party and how it functioned in his neck of the woods and Turow went out of his way to meet with a no name who was then running for State Office. Way back in 1996.

The so-called 'media' is too forgiving of those who continually get it wrong, like Kristol. Did he get anything correct this year? All his predictions were wrong. Of course his play by play is always wrong because his bias is so transparent.

But Scott Turow really impresses me.  He should get some sort of award for getting it right. And he was able to demonstrate real change over time, transformation of a local leader to a national figure and then predicting the future.