At Michigan State University, Oct 2, 2008(01 of11)
Open Image ModalObama was a little late emerging from the bus for this event, so tired that the traveling staff had made extra time for a short nap. You can see some of the fatigue in his face in this shot, taken just after his speech. He's shadowed as always by a secret service agent, one of many. A girl in the background reaches over a barrier, a gesture that became familiar at every campaign stop.
With a Young Supporter at MSU, Oct 2, 2008(02 of11)
Open Image ModalBefore the Michigan State speech, as usual, there had been a meet and greet, this one in the college president's residence.
Local Volunteers: Battle Creek, MI, Aug 31, 2008(03 of11)
Open Image ModalObama always met and posed for pictures with volunteers first, like here, before a rally at a Battle Creek, MI baseball stadium. Afterwards he'd get to the waiting dignitaries, who in this case included a governor, a senator, executives and union leaders.
Obama-Biden Frosted Flakes: Battle Creek, MI, Aug 31, 2008(04 of11)
Open Image ModalMost stops featured the same flow: off the bus, meet local supporters and VIPs, accept a memento, do the event. Battle Creek is the home of Kellogg's, hence something a little different as a gift from company executives. A lot of candidates get cranky after grinding out appearances like this one, day after day, for so many months. Never saw it happen with this one. (Next to Obama is then candidate, now Congressman, Mark Schauer.)
A Question About the Palins: Monroe, MI, Sept 1, 2008(05 of11)
Open Image ModalI wondered what it would take to get Obama's dander up. I found out at this press availability after a Labor Day picnic in Monroe, MI. It had recently been revealed that Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant, and one of the reporters asked about a rumor that the Obama campaign was pushing the story. Obama was offended at the suggestion. He said his staff knew that any of them who went after the family of an opponent would immediately be fired. This was true: When I got back to the state HQ in Detroit, there was an all-staff email waiting, reminding everyone that the senator meant exactly what he said.
A Briefing From Gibbs, Flint, MI, Sept 8, 2008(06 of11)
Open Image ModalBefore an appearance at a community college in General Motors home town Flint, MI, Obama absorbs a quick briefing from communications director (now White House press secretary) Robert Gibbs. Today he'd be talking about the promise of alternative energy vehicles, while standing in front of new GM hybrids.
Pitching Hybrids: Flint, MI, Sept 8, 2008(07 of11)
Open Image ModalAfter the briefing with Gibbs, the jacket comes off for an informal speech and Q & A. I have no end of shots of Obama with the famous room-lighting smile, but now and then, as in this one, I'd see a hint of what it cost to maintain that energy, day after day, for one and a half years.
The Biggest Crowd: Denver, Oct 26, 2008(08 of11)
Open Image ModalIn last month or so of the campaign, the crowds just kept getting bigger, peaking at well over 100,000 on this freezing day in Denver. On his way to the podium, Obama marveled at the sight. By now polls strongly signaled a victory -- no way to know for sure of course, but this crowd made it seem like it just might happen.
The Rope Line: Denver, Oct 26, 2008(09 of11)
Open Image ModalObama's relaxed warmth was a constant -- as was the contrasting vigilance of his security detail. But here, in the closing days of the campaign, he also showed more gray hair than just a few months before.
(10 of11)
Open Image ModalI had got my first look inside the campaign when I traveled from California to help with press in the closing days of the Pennsylvania primary. Inspired as I was by the candidate and his message, I entered the Philadelphia HQ thinking, "Please, God, don't let this turn out to be a bunch of bull." It wasn't. In Pennsylvania, and then in Michigan and Colorado, I saw that the values Obama espoused on the stump were the values at work when no one would have known if it was all an act -- no one, that is, except the staff, many of whom would have quit if they ever saw that was the case. Here Michael Blake, who was with the campaign from the beginning, talks to exhausted staffers the night before the Pennsylvania primary, which Obama lost.
Thanking the Campaign Staff: Washington, Jan 21, 2009(11 of11)
Open Image ModalThe day after the Inauguration, the new president and first lady said thank you at the Obama for America staff party, saluting the idealism that had carried his unlikely candidacy to victory: "You're all 25 years old," said Obama, "You didn't know this wasn't possible!"