How Obama Won

In the upcoming New Yorker, Ryan Lizza writes a long piece on how the Obama campaign won. It shows what most of us who have been following the campaign already know: a campaign amazingly well-organized in every aspect from message, money, policy and more. What struck as me the most was the following passage:

Obama, who is not without an ego, regarded himself as just as gifted as his top strategists in the art and practice of politics. Patrick Gaspard, the campaign’s political director, said that when, in early 2007, he interviewed for a job with Obama and Plouffe, Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” After Obama’s first debate with McCain, on September 26th, Gaspard sent him an e-mail. “You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,” he wrote. Obama replied, “Just give me the ball.” Obama’s confidence filtered down through the campaign and gave comfort to his staff during the bleaker moments of 2008, such as when Obama learned that he had lost the New Hampshire primary. After that, he told his longtime friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett, “This will turn out to have been a good thing.” Jarrett told me, “You would think you would have a lot of other things to say before you might get to that.” Favreau said, “His demeanor when he won the Iowa caucuses and his demeanor when he lost New Hampshire were not much different.”

Now I knew Obama probably thought pretty highly of himself, but his demeanor on the stump was always so controlled and mostly humble that the American people rarely saw it. It was a testimony to his self-control never to outwardly expect himself as a presumptive nominee when there was so much work to do.