The Making of a Candidate: A Timeline

News Type: Event — Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:17 PM EDT

politics, obama, 2008-election, presidential-election

This timeline is a work-in-progress that tracks the ascendancy of presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, D-Illinois.

1988 - Obama is a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin
1992 - Obama graduates from Harvard and returns to Chicago
1992, Oct - Obama marries fellow attorney Michelle Robinson, whom he met at Sidley & Austin
1995, Jul - Obama, at 34, publishes his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"
1995, Aug - Obama files paperwork to run for Palmer's Illinois Senate seat
1996, Jan - Obama has his four competitor petitions invalidated; he emerges as the only candidate
1996, Nov - Obama is elected to Illinois Senate, which is controlled by Republicans
1999 - Obama begins running for Congress
2000 - Obama loses his challenge for Congressional seat held by Rep. Bobby Rush
2002, Nov - Democrats usurp Republican control of the Illinois Senate; Obama has not yet successfully sponsored legislation during his six years in the Illinois Senate
2003-2004 - Obama amasses his legislative record, serves as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee
2003 - Obama begins running for US Senate
2003 - David Axelrod, adviser to John Edwards in 2004, [begins having] camera crews [track] virtually everything Obama has done in public." He does this for at least four years and uses this footage to create a five-minute Internet video for the 16 Jan. 2007 announcement that Obama is running for president.
2004, Mar - Obama wins the primary with 52% of the vote
2004, Jun - Obama's Republican opponent withdraws
2004, Aug - Democratic National Convention address, "The Audacity of Hope," was based on a sermon delivered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's spiritual advisor
2004, Nov - Obama is elected to US Senate with 70% of the vote
2005, Jan - Obama files paperwork for his leadership PAC, The Hope Fund (PAC website no longer active, points to Obama's presidential campaign website)
2005 - Obama purchases land from neighbor and now-indicted political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko
2006 - Obama publishes the book, The Audacity of Hope
2007, Jan - Obama begins running for US President, one year after setting foot in the Senate
2007, Mar - Obama endorses controversial Chicago alderman Dorothy "The Hat" Tillman, who reportedly "[deployed] city resources to hire her family and reward campaign contributors."
2007, Apr - Controversy over Obama's MySpace page
2007, May - Obama's campaign releases its sophisticated Facebook application, only hours "after the company launched the developer platform." TechPresident argues that Facebook gave the Obama camp an advantage: "the other campaigns found out about Platform's with the rest of us, on Friday, May 25" and reports that "Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, is working on the Obama campaign."

This article first appeared at US Politics @ About.com

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{"commentId":1631008,"authorDomain":"uspolitics"}

Kathy Gill

< Head Shake >

This is a companion piece to The Making of a Candidate

The more I read about Obama, the more I wonder ... who are his advisors? (Besides Axelrod,, who advised Edwards in 2004.) Who helped him chart this very very clear and expedited path? Is is George Soros, as the right claims? We know Soros gave Obama a LOT of money when he ran for Senate in 2004, the exception to campaign limits triggered by Hull's millionaire self-financing.

{"commentId":1631008,"threadId":"241672","contentId":"1396693","authorDomain":"uspolitics"}

#1 - Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:22 PM EDT

{"commentId":1634887,"authorDomain":"eriqalan"}

eriq samson

There is a lot of information contained here and in the links, you did a lot of work to bring this together

{"commentId":1634887,"threadId":"241672","contentId":"1396693","authorDomain":"eriqalan"}

1 vote

#2 - Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:53 PM EDT

{"commentId":1635037,"authorDomain":"uspolitics"}

Kathy Gill

Thanks again. :)

{"commentId":1635037,"threadId":"241672","contentId":"1396693","authorDomain":"uspolitics"}

1 vote

#2.1 - Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:50 PM EDT

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Obama Nation: Obama's Pastor and the	barakobamanation.blogspot.com	Fri Mar 28	2
Obama is the perfect man to lead an imperfect conversation	Chicago Tribune	Wed Mar 26	6
The Making of a Candidate	Kathy Gill	Fri Mar 28	5
The Casey Endorsement - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog	The New York Times	Fri Mar 28	1
Does Obama Deserve (Progressives) Support ?	JohnRussell	Sun Mar 30	17

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The Making of a Candidate: A Timeline

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