Obama: From unknown to nominee

Chicago was the city where Obama put down roots. He joined the Trinity United Church of Christ and became friends with its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary comments about race and America would later raise questions about Obama's judgment and threaten to derail his presidential campaign. (Obama denounced the remarks after they created a national uproar; he no longer attends the church.)

Chicago also was Obama's political boot camp, where he learned how to win over skeptics who wondered why that tall, skinny guy was at their door when Harold Washington, the first black mayor, was in City Hall.

"Black people would say, 'Harold will take care of the problem. Why do we need a community organizer?"' recalls Mike Kruglik, a fellow organizer. "He'd say, 'We have to build the power ... we can't trust any individual politician."'

Obama was not all work. He attended Chicago Bulls games and wrote short fictional stories that evocatively captured the feel of the streets. (He later wrote two best-selling books, one of them a memoir.)

Obama also remained close to his family. After her father died, Maya, who is nine years younger, says Obama "really took on the role of a father," taking her on college tours, introducing her to jazz, blues and classical music — and, much later, consoling her when their mother died of ovarian cancer at age 53.

After three years, Obama had become increasingly pragmatic about what he could accomplish as an organizer. "The victories were small, they changed peoples' lives, but they didn't change American society and he wanted to do that," Kellman says.

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Obama made a giant leap from the gritty South Side to the heady atmosphere of Harvard Law School, the training ground for America's elite. He made history there, as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, perhaps the most prestigious law journal in the nation.

The distinction brought a wave of publicity. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Obama said a Harvard education "means you can take risks. You can try to do things to improve society and still land on your feet."

After his first year, Obama was a summer associate at a corporate law firm in Chicago where his adviser was Michelle Robinson, another Harvard law graduate and a product of a working-class family. They later married, and had two daughters, Malia, now 10, and Sasha, 7.

As Obama prepared to leave Harvard, job offers poured in.

But he already had a plan. He would return to Chicago for a political career.

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At first, he chose a behind-the-scenes job.

Obama ran a voter registration drive that added tens of thousands to the rolls. "He was very straightforward and had a no-nonsense, all-the-cards-on-the-table approach," recalls Sandy Newman, founder of the national group, Project Vote!

Obama also began carefully mapping out a path that positioned him for public office.

He joined a small, politically connected boutique law firm that did civil rights litigation. He and his wife, Michelle, lived in Hyde Park, the racially mixed neighborhood around the University of Chicago that is home to progressive politics, intellectuals and a sprinkling of Nobel Prize winners.

"By choosing to move to Hyde Park, he moved in an area where an independent can come out of nowhere to win," says Don Rose, a veteran political strategist. "By choosing to work at (that law firm), he was making a political statement to where he stood."

Many people were interested in Obama's ascent in politics, including real estate developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, whose friendship and financial help would later provide ammunition to the senator's critics and opponents.

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Rezko raised funds for many Illinois politicians, including Obama. He was recently convicted of using his influence with the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich to launch a $7 million fraud and extortion scheme.

Obama was accused of no wrongdoing and barely mentioned in the trial, but his association with Rezko proved an embarrassment — it was mentioned during the debates — in the primary season. Obama gave $250,000 from Rezko-related contributions to charity.

Obama also broadened his circle of acquaintances, impressing influential Democrats and party donors who proved invaluable in his campaigns.

Obama was "a great networker," Rose says. "He worked all the right circles. If you don't like the guy, he's a calculating politician. If you do, he's a smart, methodical worker. He does nothing that's different from most politicians, even the reform politicians. The difference is he's extraordinarily gifted. ... His greatest capability is he never makes the same mistake twice."

But that skill was nothing without a political opportunity. While waiting for one, Obama became a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He taught constitutional law. He was popular with students and faculty, though some found him a bit remote.

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