At one stage, Barack would send me three or four emails every day. These days, I don't hear from him at all.
Barack Obama's victory was all thanks to me, apparently. Not my words… his. That's what the president-elect told me; he couldn't have done it without me.
What the..? Let's rewind to May, when 4men was just four issues old and we ran a piece on Obama's chances of pulling off the election. While trying to negotiate an email interview with his office, I somehow got stuck on the Obama campaign's chain emails, where he and other Democrats updated me on the campaign, defended his position on various issues while also reminding me to dig deep.
The other week, I turned up to work having just learnt of his victory. Scanning through my inbox I came across this message:
Andrew – I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign – every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of you.
Thank you, Barack
His win was partially due to an amazing grassroots campaign that mobilised supporters via the internet and by word of mouth. The idea was to form pro-Obama groups outside the Democrats' party mechanism. It worked.
Interestingly, 4men's prediction was that if he were to win, he would require a high voter turnout. Which did happen with a turnout of 61 per cent, not to mention the fact that the majority of first-time voters chose Obama.
Strangely, though, since Barack sent me that last email, I haven't heard from him since. I will miss him so.
