海角大神

Washington and Denver 鈥� Barack Obama has risen from obscurity to fame as fast as 鈥� maybe faster than 鈥� any major party presidential nominee in modern times.

Eight years ago he was nobody from nowhere, nationally speaking. Fresh off defeat in a congressional primary, Senator Obama wasn鈥檛 even a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He drifted through L.A.鈥檚 Staples Center like an afterthought, watching most of the speeches on TV.

Now he can see history approaching. On Thursday, he鈥檒l step in front of a roaring crowd at Denver鈥檚 Invesco Field as the first African-American to win his party鈥檚 nod. To his supporters, that will be a turning point in its own right 鈥� the kind of moment you make your children watch, so that in later years they can say they remember.

鈥淵es, he鈥檚 come up fast, but not fast enough for me,鈥� says Sally Shaheen Joseph, a convention delegate from Flint, Mich., and retired mother of five.

But velocity of success does not necessarily equate to victory in November. Obama may be famous for his orations to large crowds, but in his acceptance speech he will still be introducing himself (via television) to the largest audience he鈥檚 ever talked to in his life.

That鈥檚 a tough order. To be successful, he may need to do more than prove he can deliver applause lines to 80,000 people primed and ready to cheer.

鈥淭he thing he needs to do is humanize himself, so voters see him as a person instead of a mythical figure,鈥� says Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

If they鈥檇 seen Obama eight years ago, those voters would not have confused him with, say, Zeus. He鈥檇 lost his 2000 bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush by a margin of 2 to 1.

As a junior state senator, Obama still had some electoral status. But according to the scenes he paints in his memoirs, he was an outsider on the national Democratic stage, someone who could barely get in the door at the convention venue 鈥� literally.

Charles Lewis met him a few years afterward. Lewis 鈥� an Illinois investment banker, now retired 鈥� says he鈥檇 heard good things about a little-known state senator who was thinking of running for the US Senate.

Mr. Lewis and his wife invited Obama to lunch. They were impressed.

鈥淚t was hard to imagine that five years from then he鈥檇 be running for president, but it was also immediately apparent that he was a very unusual guy in intellect, temperament, and worldview,鈥� says Lewis, who is now on Obama鈥檚 finance committee.

By 2004, Obama was coming up. He鈥檇 won the Democratic primary to fill an open US Senate seat from Illinois, and his initial GOP opponent dropped out due to allegations of questionable personal behavior. A campaign appearance with Sen. John Kerry led to an invitation to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in Boston.

The rest is history. He did well on the national stage and won in November, while Kerry lost.

Since then 鈥渉e鈥檚 risen incredibly fast,鈥� says Mr. West of Brookings.

Like Ronald Reagan in 1980, Obama this year has benefited from a grass roots political revolt, says West. In 1980, Reagan surfed a wave of antigovernment feeling all the way to the White House. In 2008, Obama, as an outsider candidate, benefited from a similar wave of antiwar feeling among Democrats and a general desire for government change, says the Brookings analyst.

But prior to his election, Ronald Reagan had served as governor of California for eight years, and he鈥檇 traveled the country, speaking on politics, for decades. Perhaps the only recent president whose political ascent was as fast as Obama鈥檚 was Dwight Eisenhower, according to Kenneth Collier, an associate professor of political science at Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Of course, at the time he began his political career, Eisenhower was already world famous, having helped win World War II.

Jimmy Carter had served as a governor of a small state, but at the time of the 1976 Iowa caucuses he was still seen as 鈥淛immy who?鈥�

鈥淪ome people travel a quick path from outside Washington to the White House,鈥� says Mr. Collier. 鈥淩emember, part of George Bush鈥檚 original electoral appeal was his 鈥榦utsider鈥� Texas status.鈥�