I had the privilege of attending the University of Chicago Law School while Sen. Obama was still teaching there. Unfortunately, as a first year student, I did not have the chance to take any of his classes, but I knew several students who did. What I learned about Sen. Obama inspired me to volunteer to help collect petition signatures for his 2004 Senate primary campaign.

From the very beginning of his Senate campaign, Professor Obama inspired me. He was as genuine and down-to-earth in person then as he comes across now. My friends told me how dedicated and hardworking he was as a teacher, in an area of scholarship where teaching often takes a back seat to publishing articles, casebooks, and learned treatises. Even in the midst of a brutal primary that no one thought he would win, Professor Obama never missed his weekly office hours and appointments to go over students' papers, answer questions, and discuss class topics. Great professors are loved by their colleagues and great teachers are loved by their students; Professor Obama was loved by both.

For those who worry that Sen. Obama is a product of media hype, remember that throughout both his primary and general election campaigns, people thought of him as an admirable, but quixotic candidate. He was an accomplished, principled State Senator, but regarded as too idealistic, too straightforward to go far in politics. He had defied the powerful Chicago Democratic machine by allying himself with figures such as the Reverend James Meeks, a South Chicago minister, activist, and progressive state representative who served in the state legislature as an Independent - virtual heresy under King Richard II. He was certainly an adept advocate, authoring solidly progressive legislation such as creating a state Earned Income Tax Credit, a huge expansion of CHIP, requiring the collection of racial statistics in police stops, and requiring the videotaping of all murder interrogations, and passing these by often astonishing margins in a closely divided Illinois State Senate. In the case of the interrogation videotaping bill, he led a process that transformed opposition by police groups and state prosecutors into endorsements, and passed the bill unanimously. He once even convinced the NRA to switch from opposing a bill to endorsing it.

Without the parade of astonishing coincidences that led to his eventual victory in the primary and the general election, no one thought principled, passionate Professor Obama could beat a popular multi-millionaire with the support of most of the big Democratic interest groups or the state comptroller and son of the one of the most powerful ward bosses in Chicago. No one thought he could beat a moderate, self-made millionaire Republican who quit investment banking to teach inner city kids. But Professor Obama didn't just take advantage of his good fortune and rest on his laurels; he continued the conversation and inspired the state of Illinois with his vision. He filled rallies in Cairo, Illinois with enthusiastic supporters, where just a few decades before, a young Dick Durbin was warned not to answer knocks on his motel door for his personal safety because of anti-civil rights sentiment.

I believe that any of the likely Democratic candidates would make great Presidents. But I also believe that Sen. Obama has the potential to do more than just be a great President. I believe that he can inspire and reunite this country behind a progressive agenda like no candidate since perhaps Bobby Kennedy.

(Originally written in February 2007)