Organizing for America | Jason Gunnink's Blog: The dawn of a new era.

The dawn of a new era.

By jgunnink - Nov 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am EST

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I remember where I was when I got my first real introduction to Barack Obama. It was February, 2007. I was in SFO, getting ready to fly back to Virginia after a company offsite, looking for something to read at one of the airport book kiosks, when I saw his face staring up at me from the jacket of his latest book "The Audacity of Hope." I had heard about his fabled senate race though I had missed his historic speech at the 2004 DNC. I thought, what a marvelous American story, so I bought the book. For the next 5 hours in the air I read, and read, and with each page became more and more convinced that Barack should be our next president. I know that sounds incredibly premature, but that's how convinced I was of his integrity, his judgement, his intellect, and his ability to lead.

When I got back to Viriginia I tried to convey to my wife Susan how excited I was about him and that I was thinking about doing some political volunteer work for the first time in my life. She worked for Ted Kennedy in the nineties and had seen all sides of politics, so while she was encouraging I could tell that she was understandably cautious about such a fresh face, particularly in the dog eat dog world that modern politics had become. I gave her the book to read while I picked up "Dreams from my Father" at Barnes and Noble and started to learn even more about this amazing man.

Within a few weeks I had registered with his website and signed up for an event to meet up with others hopeful for change. I remember being struck by the diversity of people at that event - people of all races and age groups had showed up. The people I met that day would set the stage for my involvement in the campaign over the next year. Within a few months, Susan and I had hosted a kickoff house party, marched in a parade with Obama supporters, and I had attended several fundraising events including one in D.C. where I got to see Barack in person and shake his hand. In June I spent several nights at the Arlington County Fair collecting signatures to get Barack on the primary ballot in VA. I was blogging and raising money. By the end I tallied that between personal fundraising and the house party, I had helped raise close to $4,000 for his campaign.

I couldn't believe the energy at every event, though it never surprised me given the man and the power of his message. When primary season began, I was thinking that America didn't even know yet what a candidate they had. Some were surprised by Iowa, but I wasn't. When Barack swept the Beltway, including a Virginia primary that had the highest voter turnout ever and which even saw conservative neighbors of mine voting for Obama, I couldn't have been more proud of my new adopted state, and I knew that it was just the beginning.

After Barack was nominated at the DNC, many of our old doubts and fears resurfaced, with people talking about the Palin bump and how the Republicans were going to outmaneuver us again. Throughout this time I maintained an optimistic viewpoint. I just knew there was way too much substance there for people to ignore. When pundits call this or that debate a draw, I was like "which debate were they watching?" In the end the American people spoke, and spoke loudly.

I want to thank everyone for enduring my emails over the last year and a half. This was a long a grueling campaign and I know the road ahead will be even harder. But I am convinced that that Barack Obama will go down as not just the first African-American president, but as one of our great presidents. I have always felt that he is a once a century politician, and that we are all lucky to be alive to experience this. He is not just our Kennedy, he is our FDR. So join me today in a toast to him, but more importantly to the American people, who finally found the courage to reclaim their country.

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