What's it like to be on the inside of a dark horse presidential campaign?

Chelsea Waliser knows.

Waliser was an Obama campaign regional field director during the lead up to first-in-the-nation 2008 Iowa Caucus. For nearly a year, she hired, trained, and organized volunteers for a candidate who was viewed by many as a long shot. What drove her to Obama? What's it like to spend a year of your life in Iowa? And how did Obama's campaign beat the odds?

Tune in to find out.

Support the show

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, Feb. 5, 2008

Nothing was ever going to come easy to Barack Obama, and many thought he was crazy for trying, but belief himself was something Obama had in spades, and it lifted him to the presidency of the United States. Follow along as Barack Obama rises from a humble start as a community organizer in Chicago to crack into Illinois Democratic politics, transform his career with a 2004 national convention speech, and shock the political establishment by becoming the first African American President in U.S. history in 2009. His reward? Two foreign wars, an economy in free fall, and an opposition party committed to saying 'no!' at every turn. It was one of the most challenging hands any president has been given, and yet he overcame it to save the American economy and settle its foreign policy on stable ground.

Bibliography
1. Obama: The Call of History - Peter Baker
2. Bush - Jean Edward Smith

Support the show

Sahba Azami was born an Afghan refugee.
Today, she's an Afghan refugee once more.
But, for nearly 20 years, she was not a refugee. She was simply an Afghan. And the future was bright.
Brought back to the country of her parents' birth after the United States toppled the Taliban, Sahba joined a vanguard of young women who were going to make the most of the precious opportunity that had been denied every generation of Afghan women before them -- She pursued an education.
Sahba graduated college. She graduated law school. She joined the Afghan president's administration. She was building a new country.
But then the Taliban returned.
It's an odd thing to realize: Sahba's life has almost certainly been more dramatically changed and changed again by the decisions of American presidents than my own, but it's a realization I can't shake. The decision of American presidents made it possible for Sahba to return to Afghanistan and pursue an education. The decisions of American presidents contributed to Afghanistan's collapse, separating her from her family, and making her a refugee in a faraway land.
But still, she dreams.
Today, she shares her story.

Support the show

Donald Trump does not talk like a politician. But where some hear truth telling, and others hear something unhinged, professor Jennifer Mercieca hears a consistent rhetorical strategy designed to bind audiences to Trump and sever them from everyone else.

A strategy good enough to win the presidency not just once, but twice.

Communication professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, discusses the six techniques Trump uses to cast a spell on his audiences.

Support the show

"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." - George W Bush, World Trade Center Site, September 14, 2001

George W. Bush did not get the presidency he thought he would. He expected to be the tax, entitlement, and education reform guy. Not the war on terror guy.

But the deadliest attack in World History will do that to you.

Follow along as Bush rides a privileged upbringing to the Texas Governorship, wins the White House after the most controversial election of the past 150 years, then struggles with how to keep Americans safe in the years after 9/11 and how to stave off economic armageddon when the 2008 financial crisis sends the global economy into a free fall.

Bibliography
1. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
2. Obama: The Call of History - Peter Baker
3. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham

Support the show

"It's the economy, stupid" - Clinton advisor James Carville, 1992.

Bill Clinton left office with a 66% approval rating. This was in large part because 81% of Americans approved his handling of the economy - 71% said the 1999 was the best economy of their lifetimes (according to Gallup).

But how much credit does a president really deserve for an economy? And how does Clinton's record on free trade, welfare reform, and deregulation hold up today?

Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, author of A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism, joins me to discuss the economic legacy of Bill Clinton.

Support the show

“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.’” — Bill Clinton's inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1993.

Bill Clinton has the highest end-of-term approval rating of any president in modern history - 66%. But that doesn't mean things came easy. It doesn't even mean he succeeded in what he set out to do! Follow along as Clinton rises from Arkansas poverty to become the youngest governor in the country and a dark horse presidential candidate on his way to the White House. Once there, he will contend with a revolution in opposition politics, a government shutdown, and the first presidential impeachment trial since 1868. And then, after all that, he'll try to resolve one of the world's most tragic intractable struggles - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He won't succeed at that either, but damnit, he'll try.

Bibliography
1. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House - John Harris
2. Bill Clinton - Michael Tomasky
3. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
4. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
5. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter

Support the show

For the third consecutive year, four podcasters got together to record their annual Friendsgiving History Podcast Spectacular. Tune in as I'm joined by three fellow history podcasters and friends for a roundtable discussion on U.S. and presidential history. The other podcasters are:

• Howard Dorre, Plodding through the Presidents
• Jerry Landry, Presidencies of the United States
• Alycia, Civics & Coffee

Happy Thanksgiving!

Support the show