Our storytellers
The 42 voices in our recounting of the Obama drama.San Francisco journalist and entrepreneur David Talbot founded the first general-interest online magazine, Salon, and is the author of the recently published Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.
A Marin County native and the son of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, Brian Lesh is a freshman at Princeton University and is still active in Students for Barack Obama.
Berkeley resident Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is the founder of what is arguably the Left’s most influential political website, Daily Kos.
Campaign blogger Mayhill Fowler got famous twice—first by breaking Bittergate on the Huffington Post, then by taping Bill Clinton on a rope line calling a Vanity Fair reporter “slimy.” Fowler lives in Oakland and is writing a book about her experiences.
Craigslist founder and San Francisco resident Craig Newmark has blogged on the Huffington Post about citizen journalism, politics, democracy, and more.
Silicon Valley cyberlaw guru Lawrence Lessig first met Obama when they were both law school professors in Chicago. The founder of Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, he now teaches at Stanford Law School.
Christine Pelosi trains aspiring political candidates. Her book, Campaign Boot Camp, was published in 2007, and she was very popular last spring as an uncommitted superdelegate.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Joe Garofoli wrote a truth-squadding series called “Lies, Half-Truths, and Contradictions” for SFGate’s politics blog last fall.
In 1998, Wes Boyd and his wife, Joan Blades, founded the first effective online political force, MoveOn, after selling their software company, Berkeley Systems, for $14 million.
A San Francisco–based new-media thinker and former journalist, Peter Leyden ran the progressive New Politics Institute until July 2008. His policy think tank and new-media company is called Next Agenda.
Before covering Obama for Rolling Stone, San Francisco journalist Tim Dickinson divulged the Bay Area’s emerging digipopulism for this magazine (May 2006; see sanfranmag.com).
Along with her husband, Wes Boyd, Joan Blades founded MoveOn in 1997. She is a Huffington Post blogger, and she cofounded MomsRising.org to bring about “a more family-friendly America.”
Prolific progressive journalist Marc Cooper coedited the famous Bittergate piece for the Huffington Post and was the editorial director of the Huffington Post’s OffTheBus campaign blog, which was written by citizen journalists. He teaches at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
Menlo Park venture capitalist and activist Andy Rappaport, along with his wife, Deborah, is one of the nation’s largest and most hands-on donors to progressive causes.
Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi is still credited as a pioneer of web politicking, despite having backed John Edwards in ’08. He authored The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything in 2004.
Matt Buchanan is an associate editor of gadget blog Gizmodo.
San Franciscan Angela Petrella and her friends hosted a $100-a-ticket party that raised nearly $15,000 for Obama. She handles publicity for McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers’ publishing house.
John Roos, the CEO of Silicon Valley legal powerhouse Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, served as Obama’s California finance committee cochair. In prior elections, he backed Bill Bradley and John Kerry.
A partner at Morrison & Foerster, Tony West was the cochair of Obama’s California finance committee and campaigned extensively with BFO (best friend of the Obamas) Valerie Jarrett.
Silicon Valley investor Steve Spinner, a frequent adviser to technology startups, worked full-time to elect Obama and founded Entrepreneurs for Obama.
Former San Francisco magazine political writer Joan Walsh has been Salon’s editor-in-chief since 2005. She spars weekly with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball.
Chris Lehane, a former lawyer for Bill Clinton and press secretary for Al Gore, now advises candidates and businesses from his Tiburon- and San Diego–based PR firm.
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ managing director, Mark Gorenberg, was John Kerry’s California finance chair in 2004 and helped raise $2 million for House candidates in 2006. He also sat on Obama’s national finance committee.
Former Al Gore campaign staffer Peter Greenberger runs Google’s Elections and Issue Advocacy team, which sells candidates on the value of Google advertising.
Wired senior editor Nick Thompson first wrote about an Internet-centric presidential candidate—John McCain—back around the turn of the millennium.
Thomas Gensemer is a managing partner at Blue State Digital, which was hired to mastermind My.BarackObama.com just 10 days before the site launched. Previously, he was the online director for general Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential bid.
Bay Area native Tom Rosenstiel is the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, as well as a former media critic for the Los Angeles Times and a reporter for Newsweek.
While still a senior at Gunn High School, Molly Kawahata served as the national high school codirector of Students for Barack Obama. She is now a freshman at UC Berkeley.
Facebook employee Meena Harris, 24, is the daughter of Tony West and the niece of San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris. She served as the grassroots fundraising manager for Obama’s Silicon Valley office.
Raven Brooks is the executive director of Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos), which hosts an annual convention of progressive bloggers that has become de rigueur for the nation’s most powerful Democrats.
In 2006, San Francisco’s Cheryl Contee cofounded Jack & Jill Politics, a top African American political blog. She is a devout Obama supporter.
Sarah Lai Stirland is a San Francisco–based freelance writer who covered the campaign for Wired.com. She has reported on politics and technology in print and online for eight years.
Randy Shandobil is the political editor of KTVU Channel 2 News, where he has worked for more than 30 years.
Biz Stone is a cofounder of the two-year-old instant-blogging service Twitter (maximum post: the length of this sentence), based in San Francisco.
Jim Klar is an acoustic rock musician who sold his self-produced album to raise money for Obama. By day, he’s a web director for San Francisco computer company OQO.
“It took 40 years of wandering the desert,” says Marshall Ganz, who advised on Obama’s volunteer effort, of our new president’s path to the White House. He was a field organizer for César Chávez and Robert Kennedy and now lectures on public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and political director, communicated daily with both campaigns last fall. Before moving to the Bay Area, he was a reporter at the Boston Globe and ABC News.
Huffington Post cofounder Arianna Huffington is a blogger, columnist, radio host, and author. “She’s the Zsa Zsa of politics,” says fan David Talbot. “She understands that politics is also a party.”
Rich Silverstein is the cochairman, along with Jeff Goodby, of legendary San Francisco advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
David Carr has covered the media for more than 25 years and is now a media columnist for the New York Times.
San Francisco supervisor Ross Mirkarimi ran Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign in 2000. He is considering running for S.F. mayor.
Former San Francisco resident Sean Quinn took a hiatus from playing poker for a living last year to write for Nate Silver’s addictive and highly respected polling site, FiveThirtyEight.com.
A Marin County native and the son of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, Brian Lesh is a freshman at Princeton University and is still active in Students for Barack Obama.
Berkeley resident Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is the founder of what is arguably the Left’s most influential political website, Daily Kos.
Campaign blogger Mayhill Fowler got famous twice—first by breaking Bittergate on the Huffington Post, then by taping Bill Clinton on a rope line calling a Vanity Fair reporter “slimy.” Fowler lives in Oakland and is writing a book about her experiences.
Craigslist founder and San Francisco resident Craig Newmark has blogged on the Huffington Post about citizen journalism, politics, democracy, and more.
Silicon Valley cyberlaw guru Lawrence Lessig first met Obama when they were both law school professors in Chicago. The founder of Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, he now teaches at Stanford Law School.
Christine Pelosi trains aspiring political candidates. Her book, Campaign Boot Camp, was published in 2007, and she was very popular last spring as an uncommitted superdelegate.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Joe Garofoli wrote a truth-squadding series called “Lies, Half-Truths, and Contradictions” for SFGate’s politics blog last fall.
In 1998, Wes Boyd and his wife, Joan Blades, founded the first effective online political force, MoveOn, after selling their software company, Berkeley Systems, for $14 million.
A San Francisco–based new-media thinker and former journalist, Peter Leyden ran the progressive New Politics Institute until July 2008. His policy think tank and new-media company is called Next Agenda.
Before covering Obama for Rolling Stone, San Francisco journalist Tim Dickinson divulged the Bay Area’s emerging digipopulism for this magazine (May 2006; see sanfranmag.com).
Along with her husband, Wes Boyd, Joan Blades founded MoveOn in 1997. She is a Huffington Post blogger, and she cofounded MomsRising.org to bring about “a more family-friendly America.”
Prolific progressive journalist Marc Cooper coedited the famous Bittergate piece for the Huffington Post and was the editorial director of the Huffington Post’s OffTheBus campaign blog, which was written by citizen journalists. He teaches at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
Menlo Park venture capitalist and activist Andy Rappaport, along with his wife, Deborah, is one of the nation’s largest and most hands-on donors to progressive causes.
Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi is still credited as a pioneer of web politicking, despite having backed John Edwards in ’08. He authored The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything in 2004.
Matt Buchanan is an associate editor of gadget blog Gizmodo.
San Franciscan Angela Petrella and her friends hosted a $100-a-ticket party that raised nearly $15,000 for Obama. She handles publicity for McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers’ publishing house.
John Roos, the CEO of Silicon Valley legal powerhouse Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, served as Obama’s California finance committee cochair. In prior elections, he backed Bill Bradley and John Kerry.
A partner at Morrison & Foerster, Tony West was the cochair of Obama’s California finance committee and campaigned extensively with BFO (best friend of the Obamas) Valerie Jarrett.
Silicon Valley investor Steve Spinner, a frequent adviser to technology startups, worked full-time to elect Obama and founded Entrepreneurs for Obama.
Former San Francisco magazine political writer Joan Walsh has been Salon’s editor-in-chief since 2005. She spars weekly with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball.
Chris Lehane, a former lawyer for Bill Clinton and press secretary for Al Gore, now advises candidates and businesses from his Tiburon- and San Diego–based PR firm.
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ managing director, Mark Gorenberg, was John Kerry’s California finance chair in 2004 and helped raise $2 million for House candidates in 2006. He also sat on Obama’s national finance committee.
Former Al Gore campaign staffer Peter Greenberger runs Google’s Elections and Issue Advocacy team, which sells candidates on the value of Google advertising.
Wired senior editor Nick Thompson first wrote about an Internet-centric presidential candidate—John McCain—back around the turn of the millennium.
Thomas Gensemer is a managing partner at Blue State Digital, which was hired to mastermind My.BarackObama.com just 10 days before the site launched. Previously, he was the online director for general Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential bid.
Bay Area native Tom Rosenstiel is the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, as well as a former media critic for the Los Angeles Times and a reporter for Newsweek.
While still a senior at Gunn High School, Molly Kawahata served as the national high school codirector of Students for Barack Obama. She is now a freshman at UC Berkeley.
Facebook employee Meena Harris, 24, is the daughter of Tony West and the niece of San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris. She served as the grassroots fundraising manager for Obama’s Silicon Valley office.
Raven Brooks is the executive director of Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos), which hosts an annual convention of progressive bloggers that has become de rigueur for the nation’s most powerful Democrats.
In 2006, San Francisco’s Cheryl Contee cofounded Jack & Jill Politics, a top African American political blog. She is a devout Obama supporter.
Sarah Lai Stirland is a San Francisco–based freelance writer who covered the campaign for Wired.com. She has reported on politics and technology in print and online for eight years.
Randy Shandobil is the political editor of KTVU Channel 2 News, where he has worked for more than 30 years.
Biz Stone is a cofounder of the two-year-old instant-blogging service Twitter (maximum post: the length of this sentence), based in San Francisco.
Jim Klar is an acoustic rock musician who sold his self-produced album to raise money for Obama. By day, he’s a web director for San Francisco computer company OQO.
“It took 40 years of wandering the desert,” says Marshall Ganz, who advised on Obama’s volunteer effort, of our new president’s path to the White House. He was a field organizer for César Chávez and Robert Kennedy and now lectures on public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and political director, communicated daily with both campaigns last fall. Before moving to the Bay Area, he was a reporter at the Boston Globe and ABC News.
Huffington Post cofounder Arianna Huffington is a blogger, columnist, radio host, and author. “She’s the Zsa Zsa of politics,” says fan David Talbot. “She understands that politics is also a party.”
Rich Silverstein is the cochairman, along with Jeff Goodby, of legendary San Francisco advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
David Carr has covered the media for more than 25 years and is now a media columnist for the New York Times.
San Francisco supervisor Ross Mirkarimi ran Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign in 2000. He is considering running for S.F. mayor.
Former San Francisco resident Sean Quinn took a hiatus from playing poker for a living last year to write for Nate Silver’s addictive and highly respected polling site, FiveThirtyEight.com.
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