Illinois, United States - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Illinois, United States Index / Locations Transcripts Kathleen Sebelius ...States Senate. Some friends of mine in Illinois said, “There's this guy that we thin... Tom Harkin ...by the name of Phil Crane from Illinois had gone over. He said, “Hey, thes... ...Durbin, my good friend Dick Durbin from Illinois . I said, “Dick,” and I told him thi... ...sorry, I'm ahead of—that was the guy, Illinois , the mayor— Rahm Emanuel? Rah... Pete Rouse ...office in fall of 2003—because the Illinois primary is in March—and he says, “I go... ...about that, particularly in downstate Illinois , given the way I won this election. S... ...an African American female senator from Illinois , so I think he understood in th... ...in being an effective senator for Illinois and let the future—he wasn't there t... ...there to be the Black senator from Illinois . He was there to be a senator fro... ...He was there to be a senator from Illinois who happened to be Black. I think tha... ...have a certain budget as a senator from Illinois . What we need to do first is do a... ...people that came off his campaign in Illinois —which, I don't know when you'l... ...of them were brought in to staff the Illinois operation, which was important. Bu... ...the locus of the operation turns from Illinois to DC; he's spending more time with DC... ...there was a lot of friction between the Illinois operation and the DC operation. ... ...of scheduling, because the people in Illinois thought they knew better about how w... ...A lot of the people on the staff in Illinois thought, “Well, he's going to win o... ...And to be fair to the people in Illinois , they're the ones that are hearin... ...something for him, and then one of his Illinois people would call him at home and say... ...he said, for example—he went back to Illinois and said, “Don't anybody call me a... ...going to put the emphasis on downstate Illinois , not Chicago. So the Chicago staf... ...demonstrate that he was a senator for Illinois . That's what spending three-quarter... ...three-quarters of his time in downstate Illinois initially was. That's where we made th... ...believe this is true; the only non- Illinois speaking engagement he accepted in th... ...and roads and infrastructure in Illinois . I think he got off that after th... ...color, was prove you're a senator for Illinois and care about it. The second piece o... ...obviously, once he got established in Illinois , would be to start speaking abou... ...did start talking about that, people of Illinois —rather than thinking he's too big fo... ...organizer, a law professor, in the Illinois legislature. Organization is no... ...House, he was four years away from the Illinois state senate, so that's a pretty bi... ...and messaging, and Chicago politics, Illinois politics, national politics. Valeri... ...as you know, he's four years out of the Illinois state senate, and most of the people i... ...strong political organization family in Illinois , more acceptable, theoretically, t... ...the system and the establishment in Illinois and running for president. So I stil... ...of all, in many cases—particularly in Illinois , for example, for Obama—a letter tha... Show more... Arne Duncan ...before you became CEO, the Illinois legislature passed the Chicago Schoo... ...research the history. I'm not sure the Illinois legislature thought that the mayo... ...their standards. And our state here, Illinois , was one of those. And I can talk mor... ...I can talk more about this later. But Illinois lowered their standards, so it looke... ...friends. Ultimately, when he was in the Illinois legislature and then an Illinoi... ...in the Illinois legislature and then an Illinois senator, we would visit school... ...their academic standards for kids. And Illinois did. I'll take one minute, because thi... ...“on grade level” or “proficient” on the Illinois state standards and how that equated t... ...think that what kids need to know in Illinois is somehow radically different tha... ...No company is like, “I'm moving to Illinois because of Illinois standards,” or... ...“I'm moving to Illinois because of Illinois standards,” or, “I'm moving t... ...happened. I remember being worried if Illinois would have won—the president and I ar... ...won—the president and I are both from Illinois —people would have said that's hom... Show more... Jon Favreau ...club Republicans he could remember from Illinois ; “This is someone I could work with.... ...and how it affected Galesburg, Illinois , which is where Knox is. But it als... Diane Johnson ...a possibility that this senator from Illinois was going to run, like most people, ... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Russia Russia go to the Obama in the Senate Obama in the Senate go to the LGBTQ Policy LGBTQ Policy go to the Immigration Immigration go to the Democrats Democrats