I was not present in Springfield on the sub-zero windchill morning that Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy. I had intended to attend, but things fell through and I laid in a prone position on my couch in DeKalb, watching it on CNN instead. I watched as a crowd of several thousand people cheered him as he made the bold statements I have come to expect from him. Here, I thought, is a politician who has become so beloved by his constituency that they practically forced his hat into the ring.

I could go on about where I stand with Obama’s policies, but most people already know that. The entire point lies in that morning as I lay spread out on the couch with a blanket, space heater and a cup of coffee, watching him on CNN. I am a person who is interested in policy but hates politicians – this is true of most people. Nearly any student you ask at NIU will tell you what they think about Iraq, or the Middle East, or health care, or social security, or global warming, or rights for homosexuals, or abortions. What they can’t tell you is which politicians support or oppose what, and who we’re trusting to hold the reins of this nation.

Obama is known to us. He ran in 2004 against Alan Keyes – a man who embodied every ugly, conservative stereotype and alienated all but the most zealous Republican voters. Illinois voters got the message pretty clearly. The message was: We have the choice between standing beside the sort of people who would actually vote for Alan Keyes, or siding with whoever opposes those sort of people. Our choice that came in the form of Obama – a charismatic young man with the idealism to change things and the influence to carry those changes out – has altered politics in this state forever.

Obama is known to us, and he is now known to the nation. The eyes of millions watched him when he stepped up to the podium in Springfield and declared his candidacy. Those same millions will remember that moment. Those same millions will also view him as I will in the coming years. Should he take the Oath of Office in January 2009, those same people will keep an interest in him. They will chide him if he strays from their expectations. They will praise him when he does things they agree with. And they will feel outrage if he ever does something they find unacceptable.

We don’t do that to politicians now. We don’t watch them. We don’t know them. We don’t reward them for doing right and don’t punish them for doing wrong. Obama’s support of universal health care, rejection of the war in Iraq and other campaign points notwithstanding, he is somebody that we do know. We need that in our politicians if we are ever to move these last two generations out of apathy and into self-governance.