Several months before Obama announced his U.S. Senate bid, Jones called his old friend Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman who now hosts the city’s most popular black call-in radio ­program.-
- [Kelley] recollected the private conversation as follows:
“He said, ‘Cliff, I’m gonna make me a U.S. Senator.‘”[said Jones]
“Oh, you are? Who might that be?” [said Kelley]
“Barack Obama.” [said Jones] [Spivak]
I’m gonna make me a U.S Senator… Barack Obama. That’s what Jones, the head of the Chicago Senate said in 2002. How was he gonna do this? Before I get to it, here is how the Times tells the story of Jones’ becoming Obama’s godfather, believe it at your own discretion
Long before Barack Obama launched his campaign for the White House, when he was considering a run for the US Senate in 2003, he paid an intriguing visit to a former Chicago sewers inspector who had risen to become one of the most influential African-American politicians in Illinois.

“You have the power to elect a US senator,” Obama told Emil Jones, Democratic leader of the Illinois state senate [aka sewer inspector]. Jones looked at the ambitious young man smiling before him and asked, teasingly: “Do you know anybody I could make a US senator?”
According to Jones, Obama replied: “Me.” It was his first, audacious step in a spectacular rise from the murky political backwaters of Springfield, the Illinois capital. [Times of London]
Now “according to Jones” is coming from the pen of New York based journalist writing for the Times of London-a daily no less respectable in the English speaking world, than the New Times or Washington Post. Still- knowing politicians, and especially one’s with sewer inspector in their resume… tangent, sorry - your discretion. Sounds too “Godfather” scripted to me.
But what follows, is not some fantasy, as it involves more than just Jones and Obama, but unhappy participants who were sidelined by Jones in his attempt to make Obama a U.S. Senator. Participants who will no doubt talk more, given the chance by rare anti-Obama journalists (all in the future, mark my words).
Jones and Obama tied the not in a few fateful meetings, and Jones basically passed all good legislation Obama’s way. That’ was how a mediocre, arrogant, and ineffectual state legislator, would rise to become the second black man in the US Senate. According to Spivak:
Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills. [Spivak]
Not everyone was happy with this, especially those who owned some of the legislation Obama was getting
I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen,” State Senator Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of landmark racial profiling and videotaped confession legislation yanked away by Jones and given to Obama, complained to me at the time. “Barack didn’t have to endure any of it, yet, in the end, he got all the credit.
… no one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the one-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and the stats in the record book.
That’s right Barry-0 fans, that “racial profiling and videotaped confession” Obama loves to brag about. Now you know, how it got on his resume. While not a very ethical practice, it
It was a stunning achievement that started him on the path of national politics — and he couldn’t have done it without Jones
[it] helped raise Obama’s profile by having him craft legislation addressing the day-to-day tragedies that dominated local news ­headlines.
For instance. Obama sponsored a bill banning the use of the diet supplement ephedra, which killed a Northwestern University football player, and another one preventing the use of pepper spray or pyrotechnics in nightclubs in the wake of the deaths of 21 people during a stampede at a Chicago nightclub. Both stories had received national attention and extensive local coverage. [Spivak]
Spivak insists this isn’t all fantasy on the part of a former Sewer inspector
I [Spivak] spoke to Jones earlier this week and he confirmed his conversation with Kelley, adding that he gave Obama the legislation because he believed in Obama’s ability to negotiate with Democrats and Republicans on divisive issues.
Yes, we have heard that one before somewhere- about Obama’s ability to negotiate with people. Yes - hear it all the time- but have yet to see it in action. I am sure he really needed to negociate a great deal, especially as his party had absolute control for the first time in 26 years.
How many of Obama’s peers were aware of Jones’ ambitions with his young godson? That remains to be investigated, but observers noted
“I just can’t emphasize enough how much this guy became respected, and how transformative it was. By 2004, he just had this aura about him.” [McClelland]
Said one observer of Springfield politics, adding
On the state Senate floor, Miller saw a more focused, more collegial Obama, who began to take his work — and his fellow legislators — seriously.[McClelland]
Take note, in 2004, Obama began to take his work seriously. Um… isn’t 2004 that the year Barry-0 ran for US Senate… made his Wright-dictated speech, republished his Dreams From My Father, and first began blushing at talk of eventually becoming president?
Let it sink in deeper, in his last year in the State legislature, in 2004, Obama began to take his work seriously.
Did observers suspect it was all a set-up, Chicago Style con-politics? Just a wackjob with massive pay-off, and minimum effort. I can just see the Craiglist posting:
Looking for fresh, African-American face, must know how to pose, preach, and seemingly “negociating” skills a plus. Ambitions a must. Leave Humility and scruples, at sewage lid.
And in case you don’t get it, godfather has ways:
At one point during Obama’s 2003 Senate campaign, Jones set out to woo two African-American politicians miffed by Obama’s presumption and ambition. One of them, Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon, a state senator, had scoffed that Obama was so ambitious he would run for “king of the world” if the position were vacant.
When Jones secured the two men’s support, Obama asked his mentor how he had pulled it off. “I made them an offer,” Jones said in mock-mafioso style. “And you don’t want to know.”
Having finally found a daddy that can deliver, Obama may have sincerely preferred not knowing how far Jones was willing to go for his godson. Currently Jones is filibustering all attempts to introduce anti-corruption legislation in Illinois while swimming in millions of Federal dollars coming straight out of Obama’s work on the Hill.
I am sure, sooner than later the media are going to get their heads out of the sand, and begin doing some digging. Until then, consider this post further proof that Obama not only lacks the experience required of a presidential candidate, but has an oversupply of political DNA.
Most of the legislation he lists on the experience portions of his website, predating his 2005 work in the US Senate, originates around 2003-4. In itself, this should have been noted a year ago, and transformed into a national issue. Learning as we are, that even the experience of this one year, was grossly contrived, is simply flabbergasting. Barack Obama, is about as honest, ethical, and forthcoming, as a slug. Everything you touch on him - exposes him as a sham and phony.