On Election Night last week, one of Barack Obama's major supporters was not in Chicago savoring the hard-won moment.
Instead, James Hoffa was home in Troy, Michigan packing his bags for his first trip to Israel. Back in Chicago, balloons floated into the air and champagne bottles were uncorked without him.
It was a case of bad timing, said Hoffa, who explained that this visit on behalf of the Yitzhak Rabin Center, which began last Friday, had been planned before he even knew he would become an Obama fan.
Now, just the name makes him grin, even though he is thousands of miles away.
"I am an extremely big supporter [of Obama]," said Hoffa with a smile, as he sat in the lobby of the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, the day after he addressed a memorial rally for Rabin in Tel Aviv.
But this was not initially the case, said Hoffa.
As the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union with 1.4 million members in 50 states, the question of which candidate his union supports can be critical.
So when the Teamsters had to decide whom to endorse, the Democratic candidates - including early favorites in the race, such as John Edwards and Hilary Clinton - came to meet its governing council.
But it was the unknown senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who excited them, even back then. They liked his ideas on workers' rights, trade and economic stimulation.
By February, the Teamsters had come out for Obama.
"It was the first major union to do so," said Hoffa proudly. Full Story........
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