President Barack Obama convenes a conference call to discuss the response to Hurricane Sandy in his office aboard Air Force One during the flight to New Hamsphire on Oct. 27, 2012.
Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs
(CNN) -- The Developing Communities Project is a faith-based, nonprofit organization formed when area churches wanted to help people hurt by the 1970s steel plant closings on the South Side of Chicago.
It offers job training and literacy programs.
It's working with Loyola University and area municipalities on an infrastructure project designed to address the region's growing population and create jobs.
And its first executive director was Barack Obama.
That's right, the man often accused of being a Muslim spent years working for a Christian organization. The man who supposedly only wants to give handouts to people spent years empowering them through education. The man Republicans accuse of only caring about himself spent his entire adult life helping those less fortunate.
True, his first term as president has not come without its disappointments.
He said he would cut the deficit -- he hasn't.
He said his administration would not be politics as usual and then he played politics with immigration reform and gay rights.
And Gitmo is still open.
But before he was president or senator or even an Illinois state representative, Obama was a young man with a degree from Columbia University who could have done just about anything he wanted, and he chose to go back to his adopted home of Chicago and help poor people.
A politician's record is not confined to what he or she does in office. That's important, but it's an abbreviated version co-authored by consultants and edited by poll numbers.
To really understand a candidate, voters have to look at the original, unabridged manuscript, the record he or she began writing before realizing someone else might read it.
I didn't vote for Obama in 2008 because he wasn't George W. Bush.
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I didn't vote for him out of racial solidarity or because he gives pretty speeches.
I voted for Obama in 2008 for the same reason why I voted for him in 2012 -- his record. And his time as a community organizer is part of that of record.
Sure, I could rely on numbers to present a strong argument for a second term. About this time four years ago, the country lost 159,000 jobs, the country's ninth consecutive month of job loss. Last week we learned we created 171,000 jobs, the 25th consecutive month of job growth. Regardless of party, I would think that would be seen as a good thing.
Our housing prices have rebounded to where they were nine years ago, and the Dow Jones Index recently closed at its highest mark in five years.
I could also point to the death of Osama bin Laden or the currency collapse in Iran because of the sanctions that he's led.
But to fully understand why I voted for Obama, one only needs to look at this quote from author H. Jackson Brown Jr.: "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."
Opinion: What's really at stake in election 2012
When no one was looking, Obama was a humble community organizer fighting for poor Americans who had lost their jobs. Four years ago, his critics mocked him for that. Today, we see a lot has changed about him ... but not that. He is still fighting for those Americans who are hurting, and it gives me a measure of peace knowing that the person in charge of making tough budget cuts has a record of working with people who are hurting.
I'm sure Mitt Romney is a decent man, and he's given millions to his church. But I can't shake the fact the self-proclaimed "son of Detroit" did not come around the city when it began to struggle in the 1980s. The great "job creator" did nothing for the city when it was hemorrhaging jobs in the 1990s and to this day he only seems to come around Detroit during election time.
If this is how the "son" treats family, I can only imagine the disregard he holds for strangers. Actually I don't have to imagine. I watched the 47% video. The one that was taped when he thought no one outside of the room would be listening.
This is why he's trailing in Michigan and Massachusetts, the two states to which he's most closely tied. It's not because he's Republican. The three Massachusetts governors before Romney were Republican, while four of the past six governors in Michigan were Republicans, including his father.
He trails because the people there know him.
They know his record. His real record.
Not the manicured version he presents on the campaign trail, but the unabridged version he began writing before his life in politics began. The version all future politicians script with the decisions that they make.
I'm not wearing blinders. I know Obama is just as flawed as Romney. He's a politician. How can he not be?
But at the end of the day I'd rather have President Barack Obama in the White House, someone with a record of being about the work of helping others before he was in office, than Mitt Romney, someone who has a record of talking about it once he got there.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.
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Obama holds backstage with Nancy-Ann DeParle, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, and traveling aide Bobby Schmuck prior to an event at the Elm Street Middle School in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Oct. 27, 2012.
Obama has lunch following an event at the Elm Street Middle School in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Oct. 27, 2012.
Obama walks with daughters Sasha, right, and Malia, center, and Kaye Wilson as they return to the White House from St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington on Oct. 28, 2012.
Obama, seated between FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate (r) and Richard Serino, FEMA deputy administrator, (l) receives an update on the response to Hurricane Sandy at the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters in Washington on Oct. 28, 2012.
Obama talks with former President Bill Clinton at the DoubleTree Downtown Orlando Hotel in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 28, 2012.
After cancelling an appearance at a campaign event in order to return to Washington to monitor the response to Hurricane Sandy, Obama arrives at the White House on Oct. 29, 2012.
Obama receives an update on the response to Hurricane Sandy in the Situation Room of the White House on Oct. 29 2012.
Obama receives an update from officials on the response to Hurricane Sandy in the Situation Room of the White House on Oct. 30, 2012.
Obama discusses the response to Hurricane Sandy by phone with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, while Alyssa Mastromonaco, the Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Operations, sits at right in the Oval Office on Oct. 30, 2012.
Obama receives an update on the Hurricane Sandy response in the Situation Room of the White House on Oct. 30, 2012.
Obama "tweets" a thank you message to people making donations to the Red Cross during his visit to the Disaster Operation Center of the Red Cross at national headquarters in Washington on Oct. 30, 2012.
Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie look at storm damage along the coast of New Jersey on Marine One on Oct. 31, 2012.
Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie talk with local residents at the Brigantine Beach Community Center in Brigantine, New Jersey, on Oct. 31, 2012.
Obama hugs Donna Vanzant, the owner of North Point Marina, as he tours damage from Hurricane Sandy in Brigantine, New Jersey, on Oct. 31, 2012.
Obama works with Jon Favreau, director of speechwriting, aboard Air Force One en route to Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Nov. 1, 2012.
Obama greets Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, at the Cheyenne Sports Complex in Las Vegas on Nov. 1, 2012.
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