They Said This Day Would Never Come: Chasing the Dream on Obama's Improbable Campaign

by Chris Liddell-Westefeld

The thrilling, unlikely story of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, as told by the volunteers and staff who propelled the longshot candidate to the presidency



In the year leading up to the Iowa caucuses, few thought a freshman senator named Barack Hussein Obama would be able to win the Democratic nomination--not to mention become the most popular leader in the world.




But something was stirring. Hundreds of young people from all over the country began assembling first in Iowa. These "kids" became the foundation of one of the most improbable presidential campaigns of the modern era.




Chris Liddell-Westefeld was one of those kids. He and thousands of other staff and volunteers dedicated every minute of their time, intelligence, and resources to help elect Barack Obama, as what started in the midwest spread nationwide. Drawn from more than 200 interviews with alumni including David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Dan Pfeiffer, Valerie Jarrett, Josh Earnest, Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau, and President Obama himself, They Said This Day Would Never Come takes readers deep inside the most inspirational presidential campaign in recent history.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Oral History, Biography, Audiobook

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 2019

Reviews

[Graham Oberland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me tear up every ten pages or so. An absolutely incredible account of Obama’s first campaign for president, in the form of interviews with field organizers, senior staff, voters, and the man himself. The author was himself an organizer, working tirelessly for two years to make history, and his passion really comes through despite the fact that only a small part of the book is in his voice.

The first half of the book is dedicated to the Iowa caucus, where the campaign staked all their hopes in 2008. The interviews capture the back-breaking work, the quirky nature of Iowa politics (think marching bands at steak fries and voters who expect to meet each candidate in person), and the unshakable belief that one is making history that powers a person through such work on $2,000 a month. Many of the organizers interviewed have powerful stories about why the campaign meant so much to them, and seeing those stories gets the reader invested on a personal level. So much so that when (spoiler alert) Obama wins Iowa and delivers the titular line, it sent a chill down my spine. The second half covers the grinding primary and then the general election, with similar emotional impact and fascinating detail.

Like the candidate himself, this book above all delivers a message of hope. Getting to know the people who put their lives on hold for the slim chance to make history inspires one to hope that, just maybe, that energy and devotion can happen again in America. A great reminder two weeks from the 2020 Iowa caucus.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I found this to be fairly boring. It had a lot of great anecdotes and interesting points, particularly concerning how the Obama campaign really was on the cusp of the explosion of social media as a serious tool/weapon in politics.

It’s an 11 chapter book...7 chapters of which are entirely focused on Iowa. Iowa is (as is made clear) very important, but it was really a bit overkill. I learned more about the Iowa caucuses than I did the Obama campaign.

I appreciated hearing the campaign tails and experiences in individual, personalized voices, the organization was somewhat poor, and having the reflections at the end of what was usually a summary section ended up making the whole thing extremely repetitive after a certain point.

I think I was convinced by the title that this book would focus more on people of colour from all walks of life discussing their feelings and experiences during the campaign, whether they worked on it or not. I’d rather have read an oral history geared more towards that.

Still, it was uplifting and positive but I don’t think it was organized well. I recently read “Becoming” and frankly I think that was a better, more interesting summary of the vibrant campaign experience.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, inspiring oral history of the 2008 Obama campaign. The perfect book to be reading in a presidential election year. Highly recommended!

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what happened.

High recommend for anyone interested in politics, and
Hard recommend for anyone interested in political organizing.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

yeah I cried listening to this audiobook on the metro. What about it???

I really liked the angle this book took. as we all know, i'm in a bit of an obama era political memoir phase, and they've all been great but they normally come from someone who was super high up in the administration and knew obama well. I loved that this book highlighted the experiences of the organizers because truly that campaign (or any) would not have been possible without the tireless work of passionate organizers. i love ordinary people standing up and doing their part to be politically active and bring about change!! if you're finding yourself spiraling about the state of the country right now (like me), this book will restore a little hope in humanity.

[Fawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I am a self-proclaimed, extremely amatuer Obama historian, I found this book to be a great read. There isn't a ton written about the ins-and-outs of his 2008 campaign which this book serves to rectify. Made up of interviews with on-the-ground staff in the early states, the author brought a lot of humanity and real life to what it's like to work on a presidential campaign. I learned many new things and this is a solid 5-star book.

[Jas · Rating 5 out of 5]

At a time when hope is in short supply, Chris offers some much-needed replenishment. The perspectives of campaign volunteers and staff aren’t often heard, but they undoubtably gave the most in 2007-2008. Stories of heartbreak, mental and physical health woes, and financial sufferings abound in these pages, and remind us that change never comes easy, but it does come when we fight for it.

[Jacob Hilliker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've worked on a lot of campaigns; this book captures the raw feeling of hope that tends to permeate ramshackle campaign offices powered by 20 somethings. Loved it.

[Hannah Hopper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook because I thought it would be interesting to hear people telling their memories of the 2008 campaign trail. Unfortunately this book is not an easy listen. Having a narrator give a person’s name before every single quote makes it disjointed and difficult to follow. Because every person in the book has a different voice it would have been easier to follow if there was less “name, title” before each quote. This had so much potential to be a great audiobook.

All of that to say, I did enjoy hearing about the hard work and passion everyone put into the campaign. It was uplifting and positive in the exact ways that I was hoping for when I decided to give it a go.

[Hasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I get into the book, I'm going to admit that I'm a little biased. Barack Obama is the best political athlete, performer and candidate of my lifetime. For the second cycle in a row (2016 & 2020), I'm disappointed in the uninspiring choices that the Democratic Party has put forward. And if this is the way it's going to be here here on out, 2008 is going to be the year that never came back.

They Said This Day Would Never Come captures connects with me and how I felt about the Obama campaign in 2008. It is incredibly inspiring and hopeful and magical to read about ordinary folks feeling the fire to move across country to a small, largely rural state to campaign for the impossible. After all, we literally had no idea if America was going to vote for a black candidate.

The stories and voices of the Obama volunteers becoming a part of the Iowa communities where they were organizing was incredible. The accounts of black volunteers reassuring a skeptical black electorate in South Carolina that yes, America could elect a black man were powerful and moving. The various first hand accounts about the difficulties of uniting the party after a brutal primary were totally relatable as somebody who was all in on Obama in 2008.

This book captures history being made.

[Barry Martin Vass · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting look at Barack Obama's quixotic 2008 run for president. What makes it interesting is that Author Chris Liddell-Westefeld didn't tell this in standard narrative form; rather, he worked on the campaign and later in Obama's White House, and did a series of more than two hundred "oral history" interviews with the staff, organizers, neighborhood leaders, and volunteers who bonded together in the campaign hoping to move the country in a new direction. Even President Obama, his Campaign Manager David Plouffe, and Chief Strategist David Axelrod were interviewed, which gives a very complete picture of such a complicated undertaking. Obama was such an unknown that the Iowa caucuses were his first challenge. Here's an example of an interview from that period: "Leah White, Voter, Davenport, IA (and later precinct captain): "I was twenty-eight years old. I felt like my parents' generation and older generations owned the political space. It never felt accessible to me. And when you got on that (Obama) bus and you saw all the different ages of people, but especially younger people, it felt different. It felt more like a movement than even about a person. It was about a collection of people who were in this shared cause. It seemed like Obama had tapped into something to say, "We need you, and this country needs you." For the first time since I had started voting, I felt like my voice mattered and that it was time to step up and help." Here's another interview with Lauren Champagne, a Black field organizer in Charleston, SC: "You have to remember, in South Carolina, in the beginning, they had no idea who Barack Obama was. First, everybody knew who Hillary Clinton was. Then, for the Black community in particular, there was deep, deep concern that he would be killed. You're talking about people who were adults and young children during Jim Crow, during the civil rights movement, when our leaders were dying. They said, "If we make him the first Black president, we're essentially setting him up for assassination." It was widespread." They Said This Day Would Never Come takes you through the primaries to the general election and inauguration, with an insider's view you've never had before.

[Kaitlyn Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a reviewer copy of They Said This Day Would Never Come by Chris Liddell-Westefield from the publisher Perseus Books in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: This book is a microhistory of the Obama campaign with over 50% of it focusing on the Iowa Caucuses. Chris compiles comments from those high up in the campaign (Pluffe, Axelrod, Obama), the Crooked Media crew, but mostly this is the story of the organizers. The ones who turned out the vote for Obama, we follow the campaign from the beginning until the end.

What I Loved: The nostalgia and the hope this book makes you feel is electric. If you miss the former occupant of the White House and you want to remove the current occupant, this book is for you. It will motivate you to get on the ground and get to work. It will motivate you to meet and befriend your local organizers. The story of the grassroots campaign is so inspiring and getting insight int the first major grassroots campaign and who these people were makes you realize anyone can fight for what is right.

What I didn’t like so much: It was probably just my ARC but at times it is hard to tell if the author is providing details or if the previous speaker is still talking there's no clear transition. But again this might be the ARC and it wasn't really that detrimental to my reading experience.

Who Should Read It: People who believe in grassroots campaign. People who want to read something hopeful in the 2020 primary. People who miss the Obama movement. People who are interested in campaign logistics.

General Summary: A story of the organizers who worked on the ground for hope and change in Obama's 08 campaign.

[Elizabeth Sismour · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book back in late December 2019 or early January 2020 while listening to a crooked media podcast, on which Chris Liddell-Westefeld was a guest. I immediately bought 2 copies, 1 for myself, and one for my mom, for her birthday, knowing she would love it.

I just finally got around to reading it last week, and could not put it down. This book has made me laugh and cry in equal turn. It has made me reminisce about the good old days of having a good, decent man as president, and the campaign to elect him.

After buying two copies, and finally reading the book myself, I was compelled to buy two more copies, to send to my little sister, and her best friend. My little sister and her best friend were 12 and 11 respectively in 2008, they spent many hours on many Saturdays trekking around Pittsburgh with my mom and I, they walked, talked, and knocked for Barack, as the canvassing process was described to us, for a candidate that they were not yet old enough to vote for, in fact they would not be old enough to vote for him in his re-election either, but they got out and did the same thing in 2012 as well.

This book reminded me of all the many many people who got out and did the same to elect our last real president.

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who wants to know what the process of invigorating and enfranchising as many voters across the country as possible looks like, or who would simply like to remember what electing a real president was like.

This is what it looks like when people are empowered not by hatred and bigotry, but by the ideals of hope and change.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really excited when this book came out and it did not disappoint - on the contrary!

There's a quote from Obama in this book, when talking about the campaign and campaigners, that I think sums it up perfectly : "I was the front man but they were the band". What makes this book truly original and feel like novelty is that it's not about Barack Obama per say but about the people who helped him become president. Following an oral tradition, it gathers testimonies from the team of staff and volunteers - some quite famous, like Axelrod or the Crooked Media guys - but also some completely unknown.
Because of the way it's written and the testimony it relies on, it shows Obama's candidacy and campaign in a new light, one with ups but also downs, that wasn't a sure win from the start.
It also reinforces the idea that Obama's 2008 run was a historic one: the it impacted people on such a personal level, how committed the staff and volunteers were, you can really see how Obama would - and has - changed the game of American politics.

At a time when an election is coming up and American politics is more divided than ever, it felt like a relief to read about someone bringing about hope and unity to the USA but also, to some extent, to the world.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read to get the insider scoop on the Obama Campaign operations starting with the Iowa Caucus through the inauguration told by campaign volunteers and staff and the former president. Liddell-Westefeld has mastered the art of retelling a historical path to a presidential victory through over 200 interviews artfully pieced together. At first, I picked up this book because the author is a high school friend. I certainly enjoyed hearing his voice throughout the piece, recognizing scenes from Iowa, and some mutual friends he wrote about. I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn into the story. I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions evoked by the voices from the collective interviews. My favorite vignette was about one unexpected but determined volunteer, Mrs. Annie Bennett. She was 86 years old when she became a mainstay volunteer in Columbia, SC. She had never been involved in politics before. Her grandmother was an enslaved person and Mrs. Bennet was raised in the Jim Crow South. It was a profound piece of the larger story that illustrated the gravitas of Obama's historic election. Worth a read whether or not you supported Obama.

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of recollections from Obama campaign staff from the early days of Iowa through his inauguration. Not only did Obama grow as a candidate, but they all grew into themselves - college kids who had never voted before, veteran campaign staff all looking for change. I really loved the cross section of volunteers and supporters they met - and how these organizers were in some ways like exchange students in their new communities. I really like how this book was organized by month(s) and you could follow the campaign through its development. Seeing the 2008 recession, which shaped the outcome drastically, through the lens of history was eerie in some ways. My only complaint: I would have liked this to be a little longer, I felt the chapters from the convention to the general election were rushed. Possible Liddell-Westefeld didn't get as many contributions from that window as so many were just struggling to keep going. An excellent read

[Momprof · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love government & I love politics. I love the possibility & promise inherent in gov’t to change lives for the better, to do good in the world. It’s hard to remember that now, but this beautifully written, wonderfully structured oral history plops you right down in the middle of Iowa in ‘07 w/a bunch of young true believers who understood the magnitude of the moment (or just knew this was big & they wanted to be part of it) and said yes. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve remembered what hope feels like. This is a great read for anyone who enjoys the stories of real people dedicated to change, stories that seem impossible, stories of idealistic, good people. I know I would have appreciated this book whenever it came out, but here when our life as a country is so dark, it's a ray of light that I truly needed.

[Chelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this. I learned about part of the process I knew very little about. There was sadness and nostalgia but it also reminded me what it felt like to have hope, to believe that things could be different. Better. And that if people work together, maybe there can be hope again.

“The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. That is what we started here in Iowa, and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond. The same message we had when we were up and when we were down; the one that can save this country, brick by brick, block by block, callused hand by callused hand, that together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.” (Barack Obama)

[Raffy Sonata · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that we need in 2020 especially in this election time. The last four years have made many people including me become quite cynical towards politics, our voices don't matter, corruption of our political system etc. What's great about the United States is not that it is a country free of the problem but it is a country that the people can and are willing to change stuff for the better. This book tells the story of how chasing the dream is possible how people can gather together and unite to a cause. What touches me in this book is not the story of Obama but the story of the people who made Obama possible. The story of mostly young people who really believe that they can change the world.

[Alan Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, I expected a narrative centered on Obama's perspective during his campaign. However, the book focuses on the dedicated individuals who propelled him to the presidency, with a behind-the-scenes perspective. Through an oral history format, the book highlights the volunteers and staffers who worked tirelessly, often leaving their personal lives behind to engage voters.

The narrative begins before Obama secured the Democratic nomination, analyzing how local efforts were instrumental in his rise. It's remarkable to learn that many supporters believed in Obama's potential even before he fully embraced it himself. Their dedication was crucial in his journey to the White House.

Such an inspiring read!

[Keisha Hoerrner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The audio version is truly a gift, as we get to hear first-person accounts from first-time volunteers to experienced campaign operatives to President Obama himself. It is a beautiful reminder of the power of belief in the face of opposition, the true motivation of hope, and the confirmation that democracy can be magical even if only for a few short months or years. Give yourself this gift and remember a time when you believed with all your heart that "yes, we can"! Get fired up and ready to go, even if just to go down memory lane.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compilation of oral history recollections of Obama's campaign. What an incredible book! I know very little about how American elections work (or British other than voting) but found this book not only super insightful about that but also it really felt like you were on the journey with every person who was part of the campaign. I highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I found myself searching for images so I'd be tempted to buy the print copy if it included photos from the campaign and of the people involved.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former organizer in the Iowa Caucuses (2020), reading this testimony and breakdown of those who became Obama staffers, who were mostly broke college students compelled to travel to the middle of the country. Mixed in with some early social media and internet fundraising, this is an incredible book to your political shelf.

What was also really cool was knowing a couple of the interviewees within the book, either a short conversation in passing or someone who worked higher up the campaign structure.

[Vnunez-Ms_luv2read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read about the Obama road to running for President in 2008. You get the viewpoint of people who was with h8m on this historic occasion. The way the information is presented makes this feel Ike you are having a conversation with the participants. Very well put together and I will recommend to others. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest opinion. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

[Kelly M · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's taken me 7 months to read this, but I have finally finished it. This a very detailed oral history of the Obama campaign. It was TOO detailed and quite boring in parts, but it was written in a very accessible way. I finished it on audio and I wish I'd done the whole thing on audio because it was a much more enjoyable experience listening to everyone's voices and hearing actual audio excerpts from speeches. I'm left feeling really sad but somewhat hopeful.

[Michael Asen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this a 4 because what it does it does very well..its an oral history of the 2008 campaign centered around the author working on the Iowa caucus. I would have liked it better if each narrative was a bit longer but still it gives you a great sense of what a special campaign this was...great read for right now

[Kelli M Moors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect for political junkies

Such fun to read the stories of those who worked on the 2008 Obama campaign. Their recollections of the long hours and longer drives show for little to no money because of their belief in his Hope and Change ideals reminds me of the greatness of our country's true leaders. Great read!

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an uplifting book to read, especially during this time! This is a behind the scenes look at all of the field workers and organizers for Barack Obama‘s 2008 campaign, with first person accounts of those young people working through those exhilarating and exhausting years! So grateful to all of them for their hard work, and to Chris Liddell-Westefeld for this excellent oral history! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

[Miles McGuriman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who works on democratic campaigns this book does a great job of describing both the universal feelings of those organizing and the specific magic of Iowa. Definitely worth a read for a glimmer into the life of organizers and field staff.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former Obama organizer this book brought back so many great memories of 2008. This wonderfully compiled oral history of the 2008 campaign highlights the best of politics while simultaneously making your laugh then cry between pages.