The presidential candidate most associated with fighting poverty may be John Edwards.

But Illinois’ Barack Obama has his own plan to improve life for the poorest Americans.

He wants to create networks of services ranging from parenting classes to after-school programs to job training, targeting some of the most destitute parts of the country.

Obama has been talking about urban poverty going back at least to his days as a community organizer in Chicago in the 80s.

That was part of an extraordinary career arc that Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell takes up in a new book: Obama: From Promise to Power.

Mendell joined us recently to talk about the candidate’s meteoric rise, and the price he’s had to pay.

Mendell says he wanted to flesh out the figure that many readers came to know through Obama’s own autobiographies.