I Stumped Steve Hildebrand.

Well, he didn’t answer my question, anyways. Steve was the Deputy National Campaign Manager for now President Barack Obama. He gave a pretty nice talk on Tuesday night to a group of eager college kids, weird community members, and the rest of the people who were lucky enough to actually hear about this event. (Thanks, College Democrats, for sucking ass at things like PRESS RELEASES)

Regardless, it was a really cool event. We were actually the first group he’d given his speech to, which included an extensive (albeit slightly boring) PowerPoint presentation, and a too-short Q&A session on the end. I was able to get in one question, to which he didn’t have a response. It was: “What was your favorite endorsement?” I don’t know how he couldn’t come up with an answer, honestly. He just stood there thinking for a good 45 seconds or so before I finally offered up, “What about Oprah?” which caused him to reveal an interesting tidbit that I had never really though about before right then. Oprah is a blessing and a curse; mainly because she elevated the “Celebrity” status of Obama, which was the very thing that McCain’s attack dogs latched onto shortly afterward. However, Oprah did do wonders for his street cred and his standing with women. I attended an event with Oprah, Obama, and of course Gale, in USC’s football stadium last January. It forever changed the way I thought about politics, to say the least, and was probably one of the most inspiring days of my life. Steve ended his lecture without ever actually answering my question, so I’m going to see if I can contact him via email…

Other interesting factoids that came up throughout the eve:

1. Obama was clear on his opposition to Proposition 8 from the outset; even though to me, it seemed like his response was muted at best. Steve, who is gay, said that Obama didn’t think that discrimination should be made into law. Good.
2. The 30-minute infomercial cost unknown amounts of money; 6 media firms and 6 pollsters were involved in it. He called it the “biggest group of egos in one room that I’ve ever seen.” I think the results speak for themselves there. The infomercial was a response to the slew of negative advertising that Johnny McCain was running at the time; and frankly McCain had no way to respond to it because he frankly didn’t have enough cash.
3. Campaign Director David Plouffe was only wrong 1 time about campaign fund raising; in January he thought they would raise 20 million and instead they raised over 50.
4. Steve was in charge of the tickets to the 80,000 seat stadium that Obama gave his acceptance speech in. He got so frustrated with running out of tickets he threw fistfuls to his office, stormed out, and didn’t show up to the stadium until 6pm that night.
5. Apparently, the Reverend Wright Controversy was the most difficult part of the campaign for Barack. He said that Obama thought that leaving the church was one of the most difficult decisions he’s ever made.
6. Michelle is as impressive as Barack.
7. Barack is genuine; his message has never changed. Based on the speech to the 2004 convention, when he was practically unknown, I’d have to say that’s absolutely true.
8. The election was won by voter registration drives; 40 million new voters this time, without whom, the electoral count would have been 265 instead of 365.
9. Obama won by 9.2 million, the most ever for a non-incumbent.
10. Steve was a Clintonite, but their lack of response on Iraq drove him away from them.
11. More to come…

All in all, he was gracious fellow, very interesting, and an engaging, if somewhat monotone, speaker.