Jon Favreau

His interview with Obama was on the Senator's first day. Uninterested in Favreau's résumé, Obama instead questioned Favreau on what motivated him to work in politics, and what his theory of writing was. He described this theory to Obama as, "A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff. How do you say to the average person that's been hurting: 'I hear you, I'm there?' Even though you've been so disappointed and cynical about politics in the past, and with good reason, we can move in the right direction. Just give me a chance."

Favreau led a speech writing team for the campaign that also included Adam Frankel and Ben Rhodes. For his work with Obama in the campaign, he would wake as early as 5am, and routinely stayed up until 3am working on speeches. His leadership style among the other Obama speechwriters is very informal. They will often meet in a small conference room, discussing their work late into the evening over take-out food. According to Rhodes, Favreau did not drive structured meetings with agendas. "If he had, we probably would have laughed at him," Rhodes said. Favreau is planning to hire more speechwriters to assist him, but concedes he is unsure of how to manage them. According to him, "My biggest strength isn't the organization thing." Read Less

Because of the timing of this event, (during the height of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill) this incident garnered numerous condemnations from the press and scathing critiques of the apparent immaturity of the young press and speechwriting team of the Obama Administration. Read Less