PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Welcome to Obama Land
My First Day at HQ
EN ROUTE TO CHICAGO
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I said for the hundredth time. My boyfriend Jesse just grinned at me. It was well past midnight on a Thursday in June, and we were driving along a Michigan freeway en route to Chicago. I was to meet with Chris Hughes, Obama’s Director of Internal Organizing the next morning. After corresponding a few times since his interview for Grown Up Digital, I realized that if I was really serious about wanting to work on the campaign I would have to meet with Chris in person. Knowing how swamped he was, I jumped at his first availability—30 minutes for a coffee on Friday afternoon.
Unfortunately, I was only able to confirm the date Thursday morning, which is how I found myself making the eight-hour drive at the last minute. We couldn’t even spend the weekend in the Windy City because we were back for our friends’ wedding on Saturday morning. Essentially, I was driving overnight for a half hour meeting that could very well lead to nothing. Or, it could be something.
We arrived in Chicago on Friday morning and spent a few hours exploring the Magnificent Mile. I made my way to Obama’s campaign headquarters to meet Chris. Wearing jeans and a button up shirt, Chris was laid back, friendly, and funny. You would never guess that he was one of the co-founders of Facebook or the architect behind a revolutionary political social network. We walked to a nearby coffee shop where I tried my best to articulate why a geeky girl would want to participate in this election. In addition to having the opportunity of working with people like Chris, I found myself vocalizing a desire to participate in something big. “I just want to be a part of it,” I told him. He understood and would try to help. Even though he couldn’t make any guarantees, I was ecstatic. All I could do now was cross my fingers and wait. Chris was true to his word and a few weeks later I connected with one of the staffers working on MyBO, Obama’s social network. I received word that I could come down and become a full-time volunteer at Obama Headquarters!
Everything after that was a blur, as I raced to wrap up client projects and find a place to stay. I used Housingmaps.com, which displayed Craigslist rental listings on a Google map. I cross-referenced my top picks with Everyblock.com, a mash-up that listed all of the crimes in the vicinity to ensure I wasn’t unwittingly relocating into a homicide hotzone. I contacted the three listings on my shortlist. I received a reply from Kevin, a journalism student who was looking for someone to sublet his bedroom for three months while he completed an internship in Washington, DC. Kevin lived with a college buddy named Sumair who worked from home writing technology reports. I made my decision when I found out that Sumair’s company paid for high speed internet. Sold!
OUTSIDE OBAMA HQ ON MY VERY FIRST DAY
Jesse and I arrived in Chicago on Labor Day weekend, pulling up in front of a cheerfully painted blue house that was going to be my home for the next few months. The night before my first day, I tossed and turned, too excited to get a good night’s rest. I kept jerking awake, thinking that I had slept through my alarm and missed my first day. Eventually, I gave up on sleep and got ready for work at 5:30 a.m. I arrived in downtown Chicago early, having said goodbye to Jesse, who was heading home to Toronto. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I rode up the elevators to the Campaign’s National Office. What if I made a complete idiot of myself? The closest I had come to American politics was Seasons 1 and 2 of The West Wing that I had borrowed from a friend before making the trip down.
I was taken aback by the size of the operation. The campaign took up an entire floor of the building! I was greeted by Amy Hamblin and Emily Murphy, two members of the MyBO team I would be joining. Emily’s bubbly personality and friendly smile quickly put me at ease as she gave me a tour of the office. New Media was housed in one corner and comprised of Internal Organizing (MyBO and N2N), External Organizing (Social Networks & Mobile), Video, Blogging, Email, Online Ads, Analytics, and Design. As I walked around the office, Obama’s face looked back at me from posters, signs, and artwork that seemed to cover every possible surface. It was a little overwhelming and I wondered how it would feel to walk into a room and see my own face plastered on every wall.
OBAMA’S NAME WAS EVERYWHERE
New Media was a young department: most team members were dressed casually in jeans and Obama T-shirts, tightly clustered around desks and a few tables. It was loud and boisterous, and resembled a college dorm instead of a national political operation. I ended up securing a desk that was between Design, Organizing, and Video. It turned out to be an excellent vantage point to observe everything that was going on.
I was introduced to my new tablemate: the Obama Bot, a small robot that rolled around saying “Yes We Can” and “Fired up!” every time it encountered an object in its path. It was the creation of Jim Pugh, a member of the Analytics team who also happened to have a Ph.D in robotics. I made my first official contribution to both the Obama campaign and the field of micro-robotics by adding a printed picture of Obama’s face to the top of the robot to give it a little character.
THE OBAMA BOT WAS MY TABLE MATE AND KEPT ME ENTERTAINED ON LONG DAYS
I had been familiarizing myself with MyBo’s layout for a few hours when I noticed some of the staffers pushing chairs and desks out of the way and hauling in two large speakers. There was a sense of excitement in the air. “Barack’s calling in,” one of the volunteers said to me, “We better get a good seat before it’s too late!” I’m glad I paid attention, as the corner soon became crowded with staff and volunteers who perched themselves on nearby desks and leaned on walls. Someone dialed the conference lines and we heard field offices from across the country joining the call. There were 2,700 people listening in, including Campaign Manager David Plouffe. We all waited for Obama.
“Please hold for the senator,” said a voice on the line and applause broke out in the room. Obama came on the line, “How’s everybody doing?” He sounded upbeat but serious. “I’m so proud of everything you’ve all accomplished but we have 60 more days to go,” he said. “So dig deep. It would be a great disappointment for us to fail after all this. They are going to come after us hard, and viciously, but I believe in you and I believe in this campaign. Let’s get to work.”
What a first day.