Obama: I ‘Always Believed in a Better Kind of Politics’ Because of ‘What I Learned’ in the Ill. Assembly

"... We wouldn't bend on our deeply held principles, but we were willing to forge compromises in pursuit of a larger goal. We were practical when we needed to be. We could fight like heck on one issue and shake hands on the next. Somebody like Jesse White, he was able to travel around the state  and people didn't even necessarily know which party he was from, because he brought so much joy with the tumblers and the work they were doing. So I want you to know that this why I always believed in the better kind of politics. In part because of what I've learned here in this legislature, because of what I've learned travelling across the state, visiting some of your districts before I was running state wide, before I was a U.S. senator, learning all the corners of this state, this most representative of states, a state of small towns and rich farmland, and the world's greatest cities. A microcosm of America where Democrats and Republicans and independents and good people of every ethnicity shared certain bedrock values."