In 1995, Alice Palmer was a longtime Black activist, a “beloved elder stateswoman” in the Illinois state senate. She had a long record of community organizing and had earned a ’safe seat’ — ie, no one even tried to run against her. She was doing excellent work for the Black activist community, and holding that seat securely for them, so they could spend their resources elsewhere. Barack Obama had never run for office. He was a 32-year-old wannabee hanging around the Chicago political machine, hoping for someone to give him a boost. Palmer had a chance to run in a special election for a higher office. Obama was young, with an inspiring manner and an innocent grin. Palmer trusted him. She introduced him to party elders and donors as her probable successor, and helped him gather signatures to get on the ballot. She didn’t get any agreement with him in writing. She trusted him. Then Palmer’s higher race went poorly. To get on the ballot for her old seat, she also gathered signatures, all under the 1995 list of registered voters — hastily, collecting only the minimum number of signatures needed. When she and party elders asked Obama to withdraw, offering him help in getting an additional post elsewhere, Obama refused. So Palmer prepared to let the voters decide between them. But instead of letting the voters decide, Obama got Palmer (as well as the rest of his opponents) knocked off the ballot for her own seat. As soon as a 1996 list of registered voters was completed which purged over 15,000 voters from the registered list, he challenged all his opponents' signatures against the purged list. Since some voters had moved or died, not enough matches could be found. (Obama’s own signatures were never put to the same test.) So Obama charged Palmer with ‘fraud’, had her disgraced and knocked out of politics — rather than run a fair campaign against her. Running as the only name on the ballot, Obama took Palmer’s safe seat. Soon he abandoned it for an unsuccessful higher office run himself. So instead of Palmer in her safe seat and Obama in another seat, their party had lost them both. Palmer made some mistakes, but she is not running for President of the US on a claim of judgement and unity and courtesy, as Obama claims to be. Palmer’s mistakes came from innocent optomism — and trusting Barack Obama.

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