Burris gave further proof this morning that he is full of himself. The Chicago Sun-Times cuts him down to size:
Speaking this morning at a Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast, the state’s new junior U.S. senator, Roland Burris said that without Burris' own trailblazing, Barack Obama never would have been elected president.
"If there was no Martin Luther King Jr. and no Roland Burris, there would be no Barack Obama in the White House today," Burris said to cheers at a Rainbow PUSH Coalition breakfast in Chicago. “We must recognize, friends, that we all stand on each other's shoulders."
Burris had left elective office in Illinois before Obama was ever elected, though they did know each other. Burris was never a major presence in Obama’s campaigns for state or U.S. senate or for the presidency. When Blagojevich appointed Burris senator, Obama said Burris should decline the appointment, though Obama said he had respect for Burris. Like other Democratic leaders, Obama ultimately relented and said he looked forward to working with Burris.
Burris was elected three times to the post of state comptroller, a political office most people don't care about. He was elected as attorney general in 1990, and rather than run for reelection four years later, he ran for governor--he was defeated in the Democratic primary, the first of four successive primary losses for the Chicagoan.
Burris, even taking into account his race, was hardly a trailblazer when he was a statewide officeholder. He was cautious, risk-averse, and by the way, a lousy attorney general.
He hasn't been president even a week, but even if he fails as commander-in-chief, the rise of Barack Obama will be studied--and debated--for years, if not decades. And scholars will not find a place in that story for Roland Burris. Not even as an asterisk to a footnote.
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