In his 2004 race for Senate, any real scrutiny of Barack Obama's record as an Illinois state legislator was lost amid the spectacular flame out of Republican Jack Ryan and the ensuing pyrotechnics of the Alan Keyes campaign. That is sure to change this time around.

Kurt Erickson and Ed Tibbetts of the Southern Illinosian take an early look Obama's record in Springfield and write that , as with his short time in the United States Senate, it's been solidly liberal:

As a member of the Illinois Senate, Obama supported a single-payer health care plan run by the state and voted for an increase in the minimum wage. He also endorsed embryonic stem cell research and, in 2003, co-sponsored legislation that would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation.

He voted against allowing people to claim self-defense if they used a gun in their home. The measure would have affected only residents of towns where local handgun bans were in effect.

But he also voted in favor of allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons. Gibbs said that would be his only exception to a prohibition against the right to carry a concealed weapon.

On abortion, Obama voted against a measure designed to protect what supporters termed live babies born during abortion procedures.

Senate opponent Alan Keyes criticized Obama for the vote during their 2004 campaign. Gibbs said the legislation, which was defeated, defined a fetus as a person and "would have criminalized every abortion."

In 1998, when Democrats were in the minority in the state Senate, he made headlines as the co-sponsor of a bipartisan-backed package of legislation that overhauled state ethics laws.

His dealings with lawmakers on that ethics bill helped him build his image as someone who can work effectively on both sides of the political aisle.

State Sen. Gary Forby, a Democrat from the coal fields of Southern Illinois whose constituency includes a lot of Reagan Democrats, said Obama is a person who has wide appeal.

"Barack Obama is a person who will sit down and talk with you," Forby said.

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, a Republican from Okawville, also had high marks for Obama's gifts as a communicator but said he shouldn't be confused as a centrist.

"He is what he is - a liberal Democrat," Luechtefeld said. "I'm not saying that's all bad. It's just what he is."

In 1992, Bill Clinton used his considerable political skill and personal charm to sell the American people on the idea he was a "new Democrat" with a centrist policy agenda. Fifteen years later, Barack Obama, should he win the nomination, will employ a variation of that strategy: using the same exceptional skill set to sell himself to the public as a centrist on process, even though he's well to the left of the country on many issues as a matter of policy.