David Talbot, founder, Salon.com: I was standing in the wings in Boston when he delivered his speech in 2004. I was covering it for Salon, doing a convention blog. Ironically, I had heard about him, the buzz about him, from all the Clinton people. So I went back to the hotel room and I told my kids, “That guy is going to be the next president of the United States.” They always remember that: “Dad, you were right!”
Brian Lesh, member, Students for Barack Obama: I was 17 when I first heard Obama speak in ’06, and the main thing I was struck by was that he talked to people like they were adults. He wouldn’t just say what he thought was right and wrong. He’d say, “Here’s what I think, and this is why it’s up to you.” It moved me to tears.
Markos Moulitsas, founder, DailyKos.com: In late 2006, when the first rumors about Obama running came out, I wrote, “If Obama runs, he wins.” I never doubted it. You had a choice between Hillary Clinton, the pick of the establishment, or the white guy from North Carolina, who had a lot of money and looks too good for himself. To me, it was clear. There was a need and a desire to make history this time around.
Mayhill Fowler, citizen journalist: I went canvassing in an African American neighborhood in Oakland in June 2007. People couldn’t have cared less about Obama, didn’t want to hear about him, didn’t seem like they would leave their houses to vote for him. I remember saying to myself, “My god. I think this guy is going to be the next pres­ident. But how is he going to get from here to there in 16 months? That is going to be the great election story of my lifetime.”
Craig Newmark, founder, Craigslist.org: I started realizing that we were in the beginning of a historic period of transition from top-down, big-money democracy to bottom-up, networked, grassroots democracy. And that was something I felt I should stand up for, so I got involved with the Obama team early. I’m not politically savvy, and like most people, I prefer not to be bothered by politics. But this was too important. Somehow I made a good guess.
Lawrence Lessig, founder, Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society: He had me at hello.
Christine Pelosi, Democratic activist and superdelegate: You have this independent spirit in the Bay Area. It’s people saying, “Well, I’ll challenge authority, no matter what the authority is.” That’s where the spirit of Barack Obama met the spirit of the Bay Area.
David Talbot: People may run against San Fran­cisco values, but it was our visionary way of thinking—and our ability to get the Internet going and to exploit it as a political tool—that laid the ground­­work for Obama to be elected. No matter how he’s going to inevitably disappoint people, he’s certainly going to push this country forward. San Francisco deserves a lot of credit for setting the terms of that.
Joe Garofoli, staff writer, the San Francisco Chronicle: The Bay Area has been ground zero for what’s next in politics. People here said, “We need to get more power in the hands of real people, not political consultants” and, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” The Internet is geared to that. It’s a Bay Area philosophy from way back. So a lot of Obama’s brainpower came from here.
Wes Boyd, cofounder, MoveOn.org: I don’t want to get into a credit-taking kind of thing. It was an amazing campaign, and a lot of really great stuff came together, stuff we’ve all been working on for years. It was beautiful to see. But I will say this: A lot of the political culture that has taken hold came from Bay Area culture. Many of Obama’s techniques were invented by folks around here: the social-networking stuff that he leveraged, the online-to-offline political organizing, the blogging.
Peter Leyden, founder, Next Agenda: I’ve never said it on the record before, but there is no way he could have won—he could not have beaten Hillary Clinton—if he hadn’t adapted to the new technologies. He would have gone the way of Bill Bradley and Gary Hart. No frickin’ way could he have won.
Tim Dickinson, contributing editor, Rolling Stone: No question, the Bay Area was the crucible.