Western Courier

Issue date: 3/24/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Greg Rolf Professor Boeckelman promotes his new book.

Associate political science professor and co-author of "Barack Obama, The New Face of American Politics," Keith Boeckelman, set up shop Saturday at New Copperfield's Book Service to promote his new book, signing copies for incoming customers.

Slumped behind a lone desk with a stack of his books hot off the press, Boeckelman conversed with anyone who was willing, answering questions about Obama and the current presidential race.

"I originally became interested in Obama after seeing him give a speech here in Macomb in 2002," Boeckelman said. "I was very impressed by him and then after he won his Senate race, my co-author threw me a book idea about this rising star in politics, and this was even before he decided to run for president."

He added the fact Obama is now the leading Democratic presidential candidate has served as a springboard for the book.

"I guess we were pretty lucky for that," Boeckelman said.

Boeckelman also elaborated on what he sees in Obama as a rising political figure, saying it is hard to place a finger on exactly what draws him to the presidential candidate.

"His ability to see the problems facing the country in a bigger picture, compared to other politicians, is a definite," Boeckelman said. "As a professor, I can see that he combines the professorial and the political senses and is able to create a lift to some of the ideas intellectuals are struggling with."

He added Obama creates a context that all people can understand regardless of education or class standing.

"I think his campaign up until the last few days hasn't been super specific, so I think there are questions about that," Boeckelman said. "I hope he will focus on some of the economic issues facing the country and rethink how we deal with the global economy."

According to Boeckelman, the weakness in Obama's campaign is his plans to deal with global economy, in that Obama recently said he is looking for all the help he can get on the issue.

In terms of the United States' economic standing, Boeckelman expressed slight concern in Obama's campaign.

"I think it's going to be hard, and that whoever is the next president is going to have a big mess to clean up," Boeckelman said. "One of my concerns with Obama is that he is setting the bar a little bit too high."

According to Boeckelman, writing is a part of his job, and it is his duty to give his perspective on what is happening in politics.

"Writing is just something that is part of our professional duties," Boeckelman said. "Although this is the only book I have written, I have written several other smaller articles."

Boeckelman spoke of the writing process, pointing out he took a prolonged hiatus to focus on putting pen to paper.

"Toward the end it got a little feverish," Boeckelman said. "I went on a sabbatical in the Fall of 2006, so I did a lot of the work on it then."

He added that the book's deadline forced him to work at a faster pace to produce the final manuscript.

The book's other co-author and former member of Western Illinois University's political science faculty, Martin Dupuis, was unable to participate in the signing.

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