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Jon Favreau's Summer Wedding in Maine

The host of "Pod Save America" and his bride said "I do" on the coast of Maine

Photo by Rachel Buckley Weddings

Although Jon Favreau and Emily Black now call Los Angeles home, they have Washington, D.C. , to thank for their major milestone moments. The couple—he's the cofounder of Crooked Media and cohost of "Pod Save America" and she's an account executive at Sunshine Sachs—met at a D.C. bar in June 2012, when he was writing speeches for President Obama and she was working on the hill for Senator Sherrod Brown. Their engagement took place in D.C., too. On July 5, 2016, after dinner at their favorite restaurant from their D.C. days, Jon proposed on the Georgetown waterfront, where they had their first date five years earlier. "We were lucky that a stranger was taking a panoramic video of the Potomac River sunset and happened to capture Jon’s proposal on camera," Emily remembers.

For their wedding, the couple again headed to the East Coast. This time, on June 17, 2017, they invited 250 guests to Biddeford Pool, Maine, where the bride has always dreamed of marrying. Keep reading to see how Emily and Jon hosted a beautiful backyard bash, complete with plenty of personalized details.

The ceremony took place at the bride's family vacation home. "My family has been going to Biddeford Pool every summer since my dad was a child, and it always felt like such an amazing place to relax and enjoy the incredible, classic Maine views," she says.

The bride went dress shopping in her hometown of Cincinnati with her mom, sister, and best friend. "I live in L.A., so the idea of buying my dress in Cincinnati was confusing to a lot of people, but it felt right," she says. Emily (and her crew!) fell hard for a strapless white gown by Justin Alexander. She says,"I figured this was the only time I was allowed to wear a white ball gown, so why not go all out!"

Emily's bridesmaids wore blue dresses by Lula Kate, while her sister and best friend wore a striped variation. "I realized after I got my dress that since it had such a big skirt, I wanted my bridesmaids to also have bigger, more structured dresses, rather than the more flow-y dresses I had been initially considering," she says.

The girls carried bouquets of coral charm peonies and pink ranunculus, with eucalyptus accents.

The bride walked down the aisle on the arm of both of her parents, but her dad stayed at the altar to officiate. "My dad is a federal judge in Ohio who ruled in the 'Obergefell v. Kasich' same-sex marriage case that ultimately went to the Supreme Court, which finally recognized the right to marry," Emily explains. "My dad marries people a lot in Ohio, but we wanted him to officiate our wedding because it felt special and unique."

The couple exchanged vows they'd written themselves. "And let me tell you, writing your own vows when your husband-to-be was Obama’s chief speechwriter is not an easy task," Emily says. "I put a lot of thought and effort into my vows because I knew Jon’s would be perfect."

Emily and Jon served a signature cocktail, “the Leo,” that featured Maine blueberry lemonade with vodka—and was, of course, named after their goldendoodle, Leo. They also had personalized napkins (for Leo) and koozies as a nod to Jon's show, "Pod Save America."

Guests found their way to their seats with the help of watercolored escort cards that matched the coral charm peonies on the tabletops.

Dinner was served in a tent at the Abenakee Club, where tables were topped with more peonies and monogrammed napkins.

Leo also made an appearance on top of the couple's buttercream wedding cake.

To kick off the night of dancing, Emily organized a special father-daughter dance to "What a Wonderful World," and then surprised everyone when it transitioned into "Viva La Vida," her dad's favorite song. "It was a blast and everyone joined us immediately," she says.

The night ended with an after-party in a barn that Emily and Jon turned into a club! "We had no idea that turning our family’s barn into a nightclub, complete with cheesy couches, strobe lights, and vodka bottles on tables, would turn out to be one of the best memories of the whole weekend," Emily says. "At some point, we had to send everyone home!"

Pod Save America's Jon Favreau Wrote the Most Perfect Vows

Jon Favreau & Rashida Jones

Rashida Jones and Jon Favreau (Speechwriter)

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Zodiac	20%
Chinese zodiac	80%
Age	33%

Jon Favreau and Rashida Jones dated from July, 2009 to 2010.

Jon Favreau is a 43 year old American Writer born on 2nd June, 1981 in Winchester, Massachusetts, USA. His zodiac sign is Gemini

Rashida Jones is a 48 year old American Actress. Born Rashida Leah Jones on 25th February, 1976 in Los Angeles, California USA, she is famous for Ann Perkins in Parks and Recreation. Her zodiac sign is Pisces.

Rashida Jones and Jon Favreau (Speechwriter) - Dating, Gossip, News, Photos list. Help us build our profile of Rashida Jones and Jon Favreau (Speechwriter)! Login to add information, pictures and relationships, join in discussions and get credit for your contributions.

Relationship Statistics

Status	Duration	Length
Dating	Jul 2009 - 2010	6 months, 4 days
Total	Jul 2009 - 2010	6 months, 4 days

Rashida Jones and Barack Obama's speech writer, Jon Favreau, have been rumored to be dating since they were spotted out together in the summer of 2009.

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President Obama's speechwriter has Maxim Model girlfriend

Jon Favreau Obama's Speechwriter Girlfriend, Alejandra Campoverdi, is a White House deputy chief of staff assistant and also a Maxim Model is working with him at the White House.

According to reports, Jon Favreau, Barack Obama's 27-year-old single speechwriter, now has a girlfriend. Who has been single for some time, and has admitted that he used to have trouble convincing women that he had such an important job with President Obama.

His new girlfriend is believed to be Alejandra Campoverdi, a Hispanic American graduate of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government who has appeared in her underwear in the men's magazine Maxim and a former actress.

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Obama’s Former Speech Writer Shares the Secrets to Giving the Perfect Wedding Toast

michelle obama

The American election strategy is ultimately a war of convincing words. Promises, praises, and pontifications are what voters get up until November and then after the ballot box, things start to get more concrete. While last week’s words at the RNC were laced with ruminations on the disastrous state of the union, this week’s DNC seems ripe with praise and promise. Michelle Obama scored big with her convention speech by lifting the spirits of a divided party and empowering the country to embrace the progress made not only by electing the first black president—twice—but also by nominating the first woman to run for the office of Commander in Chief.

Jon Favreau was one of the architects of this kind of progressive, positive rhetoric. At the age of 26, he became the chief speechwriter for Obama’s 2008 campaign and was brought on as an official White House staff member after the victory in 2009, where he remained with the title Director of Speechwriting until 2013. The “Yes We Can” kid from Boston helped Obama stir the Democrats into an excited, united front and his arsenal was laced with one simple word: hope.

Now, Favreau lives in L.A. and runs the communications firm Fenway Strategies. He still makes a living consulting on word strategy, but in his life outside of the office, he’s often approached about giving speaking advice to friends and family as it pertains to common, nonpolitical events. One such instance is the wedding toast. And isn’t it a bit similar to a convention speech, after all? Trying to unite two sides, making the room feel a certain way, evoking tears or laughter. In the politics of life, giving a wedding speech is about praising love and promising a flourishing unity. In plain old politics and the elusive war of words, it should be just the same.

Below, Favreau waxes poetic on how to give a PC wedding toast worth a main-stage, Michelle-esque mic drop.

Keep it short and sweet. “Everyone says this, but the single most important thing you can do to give a successful wedding toast is: Keep it short. You should aim for three to four minutes. If it’s longer than five minutes, you are very likely to lose a crowd where everyone’s checking their iPhones anyway.”

Don’t tell a bad joke. “Use humor, but don’t try too hard here. Funny asides and anecdotes are welcome—cheesy one-liners and knock-knock jokes are not. If you’re not naturally a funny person, don’t pick a wedding venue to launch your stand-up career.”

Stick with a narrative. “Speak through stories. People are more likely to remember a single moving anecdote about the couple than an entire speech full of flowery rhetoric. And by the way, anecdotes are easier for you to remember when you’re delivering the toast, which should be memorized and not read off a piece of paper or a phone. My girlfriend Emily gave a toast at her sister’s wedding that was centered around the bride trying to plant a lemon tree in Cincinnati when she was a little girl, and everyone remembers it to this day because the story illustrated Abby’s idealism in a unique and specific way.”

Act natural. “Be conversational. Do not use big words to impress the crowd. Do not construct complex sentences and write flowery language that you wouldn’t use if you were talking with a friend one-on-one. It may look pretty written on a page, but it will sound stilted and pretentious to an audience.”

Stir the crowd’s emotions. “I say this about political speeches and the same is true with wedding toasts—the story you tell is more important than the words you write. Your job is to take the audience through a little journey that makes them laugh, cry, and learn something new about the happy couple.”

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Jon Favreau on Speechwriting, Life After D.C. ... and Melania Trump

By David Hochman

July 21, 2016

LOS ANGELES — Stretched out on his living-room couch here, Jon Favreau watched Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday night with little more than a passing interest, since he was already thinking of bed and an early flight the next morning.

At that point, as a former speechwriter for the Obama White House, he was still marveling at the parade of speakers who had passed earlier on his TV screen, including Antonio Sabato Jr. and Scott Baio, with Donald J. Trump emerging W.W.E.-style in a bright fog to the sounds of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

It could not get any more surreal, he remembers thinking at the time.

And then it did.

About 8:30, around a half-hour after Ms. Trump’s speech ended, Mr. Favreau noticed on his Twitter feed that someone had retweeted a post from the journalist Jarrett Hill stating that there were striking similarities between the speech that had just been given and the one that Michelle Obama had delivered in Denver at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

That prompted him to rewatch Mrs. Obama’s speech. “When I saw ‘word is your bond’ from Melania’s speech, I instantly recognized the phrase from Michelle’s,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. Mr. Favreau had already tweeted his own reaction to his 121,000 followers, starting with an expletive and adding: “They’re nearly identical. Someone is seriously fired.”

Mr. Favreau certainly had reason to be interested. As the chief speechwriter for the 2008 Obama campaign, Mr. Favreau had hired the woman who wrote Mrs. Obama’s address. But the incongruity did not stop there.

As he tweeted a few minutes later: “Sarah Hurwitz, Michelle’s head speechwriter, used to be Hillary’s. So the Trump campaign plagiarized from a Hillary speechwriter.”

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Jon Favreau has the world's best job

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In his memoirs, the late Ted Sorensen, speech writer and close advisor to John F Kennedy, recalls that President Clinton's press secretary, Mike McCurry, once told him: "Everyone who comes to Washington wants to be you." What McCurry meant was that, decades after Sorensen had left the White House, new arrivals in the nation's capital still modelled themselves upon him, longing to be the young advisor close to an inspirational president, entrusted with the politically sacred task of turning his thoughts into words. Many have aspired to the role. But perhaps the most extraordinary example of those who have followed Sorensen's example is Jon Favreau, director of speech writing to Barack Obama - and not yet 30.

When the president makes his state visit to Britain later this month, he will deliver speeches prepared by Favreau and his team.

More broadly, as Obama strives to recover from the "shellacking" of his party in last year's midterms and prepares to seek a second term in November 2012, Favreau will be at the heart of his quest to find a language that connects with Middle America and persuades Joe Six-Pack that Obama deserves four more years in the White House.

The president has often declared his admiration for Ronald Reagan.

It is remarkable to reflect that Favreau was not even born when Reagan won the presidency. Obama himself is scarcely a senior citizen. But the wunderkind was only 15 when his future boss became a state senator in Illinois.

Favreau came of age in the high season of The West Wing , the show that did more than anything since JFK's Camelot to glamorise the life of the White House aide. For once, however, political reality has trumped political myth. When it comes to exhilaration, intellectual energy and sheer desirability, the life Favreau now leads surpasses even that led by the young guns Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman in Martin Sheen's fictional Bartlet administration. Plucked by Obama from the life of a disillusioned DC drone - so hard up he lived off happy-hour deals in cheap Washington joints - Favreau now tours the world on Air Force One at the side of the world's most powerful man, laptop slung over his shoulder, making history as he goes. "Dude, what you're writing is going to be hung up in people's living rooms!" Bill Burton, Obama's campaign press chief, said to his young colleague as he tapped away at a draft of the inaugural address. Favreau was 27 at the time: only in show business and sport do the young experience so much pressure, power and glamour so early in life.

To understand the Obama presidency, one must understand Jon Favreau (not to be confused with his namesake, the Hollywood actor and Iron Man director). Tall, gap-toothed, recognisable by his Timberlake buzz cut, the 29-year-old is the man to whom the 44th president entrusts one of his most precious political assets: his oratory. George W Bush made hundreds of speeches, some of them very significant (the State of the Union address in 2002 that identified the "axis of evil", the West Point speech in the same year that unveiled the doctrine of pre-emptive attack). But nobody would pretend that the last president was a gifted rhetorician.

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Obama, in contrast, rose to national prominence with a single speech - a tour de force delivered at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The punctuation marks of the thrilling presidential primaries of 2007-8 were a series of Obama speeches that frequently mesmerised and rarely disappointed. As David Axelrod, chief strategist for his presidential campaign has observed: "Barack trusts [Favreau]. And Barack doesn't trust too many folks with that - the notion of surrendering that much authority over his own words."

Second, Favreau - or "Favs", as the president calls him - personified the brazen youthfulness of the Obama campaign. It sent an unambiguous message to the world that the Democrat nominee had hired a member of the Facebook generation to be his speech writer, rather than a seasoned political professional or freelancing academic. Favreau's method was that of the student having an essay crisis. He would withdraw with his laptop to a nearby Starbucks, take off his Aviator sunglasses and pound away for hours - a process he called "crashing". Even now, more soberly dressed and with a formal White House title, at the helm of a team of six writers, he sometimes disappears to a Washington coffee shop for peace, caffeine and concentration. This, it is safe to say, is not how Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton wrote speeches for George Washington - or, for that matter, Raymond Moley, FDR's legendary speech writer, or Peggy Noonan, when she prepared Ronald Reagan's homespun addresses.

As such, Favreau has always been an unofficial mascot of the Obama phenomenon, an important anchor of the brand. It was no accident that a host of profiles of the young prodigy appeared during Obama's campaign. It did the nominee's chances no harm for it to be known that, on the night of victory in the Iowa caucuses, Favs had e-mailed his friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God." Such stories cemented the idea that Obama was the candidate for the digital era, not just the first African-American with a serious chance of winning, but the first candidate since Bobby Kennedy truly to understand the aspirations of the young.

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That scrutiny came at a cost. At a party thrown for him by his parents at their home in North Reading, Massachusetts, Favreau was photographed with a cardboard effigy of Hillary Clinton, Obama's defeated rival for the Democratic nomination, apparently groping her breast. Inevitably, the picture ended up on Facebook - forcing Favreau to make a grovelling apology to the new secretary of state.

Since then, he has cultivated a markedly lower profile. The Brownlow Report in the Thirties, which first recommended professionally staffing the White House, advised presidential aides to display "a passion for anonymity". But Favreau has not gone quite that far. He still features routinely in video clips on the official White House website, usually when the presidential entourage is on tour overseas.

His love life is always of interest to the gossip columns and celebrity websites - not least when he was linked to Ali Campoverdi, a White House aide who had once posed in lingerie for

Maxim . Last June, he and fellow Obama staffer, Tommy Vietor, were photographed shirtless in a Georgetown bar, apparently playing "beer pong" (an endlessly variable beer-drenched version of table tennis, beloved of frat boys). Favreau and Vietor denied, via "friends", that they were playing the game. But that didn't stop conservative bloggers having a field day about these young pups supposedly dragging the presidency into disrepute.

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Born in June 1981 in Winchester, Massachusetts, of French-Canadian descent, Favreau took a very precocious interest in politics after his Greek-American mother, Lillian, backed Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential contest. But it was as a scholarship student majoring in political science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, that his passion was truly ignited. Just as Obama's politics emerged from his experience as a community organiser, so Favreau was inspired by his volunteer work for welfare recipients in Worcester. He wondered "why I would regularly encounter single working mothers who could not afford food, housing or medical care, despite the fact that they worked over 40 hours a week. If the idea was to get people off welfare rolls and into jobs, why were the jobs failing to provide even the most basic standard of living? These questions led me to Washington."

As a student, he interned in the press office of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, where his talent was quickly recognised and he even helped ghostwrite some newspaper articles for Kerry himself. "This Favreau kid is really incredible," the senator's staff informed the internship organisers. Once he had graduated, he returned to Kerry's press office, which was now embroiled in a fight for the presidency. By the end of the (failed) campaign against Bush, Favreau had risen to become Kerry's top speech writer. But he was appalled by what he saw of politics in the 2004 race - the back-stabbing and divisiveness - and was ready to leave Washington for grad school. "After the Kerry campaign, after all the backbiting and nastiness, my idealism and enthusiasm for politics were crushed," he said. "I was grateful for the experience, but it was such a difficult experience, along with losing, that I was done. It took Barack to rekindle that." The first approach came from Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director, who told the disenchanted Favreau that they were looking for a speech writer. He met Gibbs and the new senator for Illinois in the cafeteria in the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill. Obama wanted to know what had got him into politics and what his "theory of speech writing" was. "I have no theory," answered Favreau. "But when I saw you at the

[2004] convention, you basically told a story about your life from beginning to end, and it was a story that fit with the larger American narrative. People applauded not because you wrote an applause line, but because you touched something in the party and the country that people had not touched before. Democrats haven't had that in a long time."

This did the trick, and "Favs" was soon an indispensable member of the team. The approach taken by Obama and his young speech writer is one of the most intimate deployed by a president and a close aide. Karl Rove was often described as "Bush's Brain".

Favreau is described by Obama himself as a "mind-reader", able not only to provide a beautifully written draft but also to "channel"

Obama, to mimic his turns of phrase, his cadences and his approach to anecdote and quotation. Typically, the two men will sit together for half an hour, as Obama talks and Favreau types everything that he says: what he calls the "download". He then reshapes it into a draft. Obama works on the draft. The process continues until the two men are content.

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In the case of the inaugural address delivered on 20 January 2009, Favreau worked on a draft in Starbucks with help from three colleagues, Ben Rhodes, Adam Frankel and Sarah Hurwitz (the latter two assisted with the now-famous ending of the speech, which alluded to a message sent to the American people by Washington when the outcome of their revolution was in doubt: "Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it"). Over the weekend of 10 and 11 January, Obama sequestered himself in the Hay-Adams Hotel and redrafted the text to his satisfaction.

The fruits of the collaboration between the president and Favreau have often been sensational. Favreau is credited with Obama's most famous slogan - "Yes We Can". There have been other such encapsulations that have made their way into the political bloodstream, such as the president's call in this year's State of the Union address for a "Sputnik moment" - a technological leap forward. Much more remarkable, however, has been the high quality of Obama's oratory in general, his ability to soar as a rhetorician, deploying political arts that are traditional and rooted in the classics rather than the television and internet age.

Both he and Favreau dislike sound bites and the "laundry list" convention of the modern political speech - a long inventory of achievements - and spend much more time on "narrative" (the story a speech tells) and "naming" (the explicit identification of problems or challenges).

In the extraordinary speech written by Favreau for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa in November 2007, for instance, Obama declared that "the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do in this election. That's why not answering questions because we are afraid our answers won't be popular, just won't do.

That's why telling the American people what we think they want to hear instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won't do. Triangulating and poll-driven positions because we're worried about what Mitt [Romney] or Rudy [Giuliani] might say about us just won't do." This was a lethal attack upon the focus-group-obsessed Clintons, but delivered with a grace and impact that persuaded many for the first time that Obama might just be the man.

Favreau made a similar contribution to the speech on race delivered in March 2008, after the disclosure of the anti-American ranting of Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," the embattled candidate said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." But, Obama continued, "the profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made." Again, this is a speech that will be anthologised and studied long after the detail of the legislation that Obama enacted as president is forgotten.

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Of course, speeches on the campaign trail are quite different to speeches in office. In early 2008, Hillary Clinton repeated an adage made famous by Mario Cuomo: "You campaign with poetry, but you govern with prose" - Obama's speeches were poetic, but running the country could not be achieved by pretty rhetoric alone. To an extent, her prophecy has come true: in his first year as president, Obama made 411 "speeches, comments and remarks" (according to the official categorisation), almost all of them churned out by Favreau's office. Yet few of them had much, if any, direct impact upon the president's fortunes. The fight to secure healthcare reform, the midterm elections, the ongoing battle to secure sustainable economic recovery and the December tax cuts: these are what really mattered, big, crunchy political struggles.

Before his death, Sorensen made an acute critique of Obama's governing style. "I think that [Obama is] a remarkable speaker,"

Sorensen said, "but his speeches are still largely in campaign mode." Ouch.

Does that mean Favreau is now a marginal figure? Hardly. As he struggles to find a new idiom and a fresh language with which to reconnect with Middle America, and to reach out to Republicans in Congress, Obama will turn first to his trusted wordsmith - now more than ever, in fact. As he seeks imaginative ways of understanding and explaining the Arab uprisings, he will broaden his circle of advisors, as all presidents do - but always return to his "mind-reader" for help with the words. It is in the president's nature so to do.

Look at the deftness with which Obama's State of the Union address this year presented the horrific Tucson massacre - in which 19 people were shot - as evidence not of the divisions within America, but of the urgent need to unify. "Amid all the noise and passions and rancour of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater - something more consequential than party or political preference. We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled."

Pure Favreau. Pure Obama. An indivisible team with a lot more to do, and one more election to win. Will they prevail? Too early to say. But I bet you that, in his head at least, in moments of caffeine-soaked exhaustion late at night, Favs is already working on the biggest speech of them all, the crowning achievement: the second inaugural address. Can he write it? Yes He Can.

Originally published in the June 2011 issue of British GQ .

British politicians would kill to look as cool as Barack Obama

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Former Obama Speechwriter Jon Favreau on Trump, Hillary, and Becoming a Podcast Star

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It was April 2011, and the absurd controversy over President Obama ’s birthplace—was it Hawaii? Kenya???—was in full swing. At the insistence of a rowdy band of conspiracy theorists led by one Donald Trump, the White House released the president’s birth certificate just days before the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Obama was due to speak. Knowing Trump would be in attendance, Obama's aides, including head speechwriter Jon Favreau, decided to write in some digs at Trump’s expense.

“No one is happier about this than The Donald," Obama told the crowd. "Because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"

Trump sat stone-faced, absorbing the waves of laughter with all the grace of a Tupac truther. It was then, some claim, that he decided to exact revenge on Obama, the bastards who penned the roast, the totally biased journalists laughing—and, really, the entire world—by running for president four years later.

On the popular Keepin’ It 1600 podcast , Favreau and co-host Dan Pfeiffer, another former Obama aide, do their best to make sense of the fallout of that night, otherwise known as the 2016 presidential election. Strewn with fucks , insanes , and *fucking insane!*s, the show is a glimpse into the Washington political scene after hours, a raucous happy hour where picklebacks are $5 and political chatter flows unfiltered. So is Favreau, the 35-year-old wunderkind who left the White House in 2013, to blame for unleashing Trump on American democracy? We go straight to the source.

GQ: You helped write President Obama’s 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech roasting Donald Trump, which some say goaded him into running for president. Are you responsible for giving us Trump? Jon Favreau: I don’t know if I should say you’re welcome, or sorry. [ laughs ] I don't think that [roast] was responsible for Trump. I think whether he was humiliated at that dinner or not, he would have been humiliated in other ways, which would have led him to run. But look, we had some fun with him at that dinner because the birther conspiracy that launched it all, that happened that week. So we decided to poke fun at it.

This whole cycle has been an endless series of “what the fuck is happening.” What has surprised you the most? That's a good question, because nothing surprises me anymore. [ laughs ] The depths to which Trump has sunk have surprised me. Every time he does something that seems completely offensive and disgraceful, there's always just one more rung in the ladder that he hasn't hit yet. [ laughs ] Particularly the attack on a Gold Star family , I think, was truly awful, and surprising even for Trump.

There was a lot of speculation, when that controversy persisted, that it would be his downfall. Do you think that's the case? It’s certainly affected his standing in the race, probably more than any other comment he’s made. It wasn't an attack on Hillary Clinton. It was an attack on an American. And a parent who lost a child who was serving this country honorably. So I think that did quite a bit.

Tell me about the story behind Keepin’ It 1600. How did it come about? I’ve known Bill Simmons for a while. We both went to Holy Cross and are from Boston. So we knew each other for a while. When I moved out to L.A., we kept in touch. And then one day he was like, "You've gotta come on the podcast." And I said sure. He also knew Pfeiffer from before, so he said, "Why don't you come on with Dan Pfeiffer, and we'll do an interview." So we did Bill Simmons's podcast. And he said, "We're starting The Ringer, what if you guys started your own podcast?" Aside from Simmons's podcast and maybe a few others, I didn't really listen to podcasts or understand them that much. And I didn't know if I'd be able to do one. But I said sure, because it sounded interesting and I love talking about politics. And so we decided to test it out. And we had a lot of fun and people seemed to like it, so we kept doing it.

What made you think, Okay, this is something I could do every week ? I've done cable-TV hits, and on television you get a few minutes to fit everything in at once. And on a podcast, you have a much longer period of time to just have an interesting conversation about politics. That's all we wanted to do. And every time we bring guests on, that's what we want to do. We think that a lot of commentary and punditry that you see on TV is neither informative nor entertaining, so we were like, "Why don't we just have the conversation that we have privately among our friends about politics with everyone else, and see if they're interested?" It's just a lot of talking, like Dan and I would talk if we were hanging out, seeing each other in person.

Do you think that's why it's caught on? That it's this missing element from the political conversation? I do. I think all these podcasts, a lot of great political podcasts that are out there right now, they share the same quality, which is there's an authenticity to the conversation that you don't always get in political commentary. And there's a deeper dive into certain issues and news events that you don't often have time for in other mediums.

What drew you back into politics? You left a couple of years ago. What made you want to get back into it? I've been bitten by the bug, and that doesn't go away. When I left the White House, I was pretty eager to step away from all of this, because I was just tired. But after about a year, I learned that I will probably never be able to give it up fully. I'll have other things that I do in life, other jobs, but I will always be fascinated with politics and want to talk about it, not just because it's interesting, but because I really care about all these issues. And I care about who wins, and I think it matters. And that's not something that goes away too easily.

“A lot of great political podcasts that are out there right now, they share the same quality, which is there's an authenticity to the conversation that you don't always get in political commentary.”

How has living in L.A., outside the Beltway, changed the way you look at politics now that you're back in it? Whether I ended up moving to L.A. or moving 10 miles out of D.C. in Virginia somewhere, there's a perspective you gain by being out of Washington and being out of politics in an official capacity, where you get more perspective and more context about what matters, what to worry about, what not to worry about. When you're in D.C., you can very easily get caught up in the insanity of the news cycle and think that every single little gaffe and development matters in a big way. And a lot of it doesn't.

Tim Walz Makes Carhartt and Camo Look Natural

You always have to be able to see the big picture. And you also have to be able to see politics from a vantage point of how other people see politics, who are not necessarily political nerds like we all are. You realize that other Americans consume the news sporadically, and if you start consuming the news more sporadically, or if you see how other people consume the news, it gives you perspective.

There’s been speculation as to whether Trump will actually do the debates, but let’s say they do happen. What do Clinton and Trump each need to do to make the best case for themselves? Hillary just needs to do two things. One, remind people of what her vision is for the country, and what her policy agenda is. And two, to remind people that Donald Trump is not qualified in any way to become president of the United States. He's not qualified to run for any office, let alone president of the United States. Those are her two main objectives in those debates.

Trump needs a personality transplant. [ laughs ] If he emerges in the debates as an entirely new personality, maybe he has a shot. He has to hope for a new personality and collective amnesia. Those are the two things he needs to have going for him, and he'll be all set.

What do you think is the funniest Trump joke that will always be funny, no matter what? His Twitter feed. I thought that Hillary's line at the convention, "A man you can bait with a tweet is not the man who should have nuclear weapons," is probably the most dead-on. If you're ever feeling down, scrolling through Donald Trump's Twitter feed will pick you right back up. [ laughs ]

You and Dan Pfeiffer, your co-host, joke a lot about the state of the election and seem generally confident that Hillary will come out on top. Do you ever despair that Trump will beat the odds and win this thing? Oh, yeah. You have to run scared. President Obama said that this week. There’s a balance between complacency and freaking out. And I think, on one hand, if you just follow the news and follow the punditry, you could be whipped back and forth in 20 different directions 20 times a day. You need to look at the fundamentals, you need to look at the data. Look at the overall indicators of where the race is going, and all the polls. So you comfort yourself with all of that, but then you think, nothing is certain. Everything depends on people showing up at the polls and voting. So you've gotta work your ass off and run scared that way.

How has it felt to be in the final year of Obama’s presidency? Is it emotional? Lot of nostalgia lately, as we're winding down these last couple months. I felt it at the convention when I saw everyone and I saw him again. There's a lot of pride in what he's accomplished, and there's a lot of nostalgia for how this all started, this very unlikely journey. It’s bittersweet.

Obama has given so many noteworthy speeches. Which do you think will be the most remembered a hundred years from now? I still think his 2004 convention speech that launched him onto the national stage will be a speech that people remember forever. It is one of the most patriotic American speeches that I've ever heard. And the reason it is is because of who he was, his unlikely story, and what it said about the possibilities of America. It's not about whether we reach the ideal that he laid out in his speech, it's about whether we're on the journey toward those ideals and whether we make progress in this country. That's what his presidency is about, and I think that's what we'll be talking about for quite some time.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Jon Favreau (speechwriter)





January 20, 2009 –March 1, 2013
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Personal details
Born	(1981-06-02)June 2,1981 (age 43) ,U.S.
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Spouse	( 2017)
Children	2
Education	( )

Jonathan Edward Favreau [1] ( / ˈ f æ v r oʊ / ; born June 2, 1981) [2] is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama . [3] [4] [5]

Early life and education

Kerry campaign, obama campaign, white house director of speechwriting (2009–2013), after the white house, controversies, personal life, external links.

After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross as valedictorian, [6] Favreau worked for the John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign and was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. [7] Favreau first met Barack Obama, then a state senator from Illinois, while working on the Kerry campaign.

In 2005, Obama's communications director Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as a speechwriter. [8] Favreau was hired as Obama's speechwriter shortly after Obama's election to the United States Senate . Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama referred to him as his "mind reader". He went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful presidential election campaign . In 2009, he was named to the White House staff as Director of Speechwriting. [9]

In January 2017, he co-founded liberal media company Crooked Media with fellow former Obama staffers Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett , and began co-hosting the political podcast Pod Save America with Vietor, Lovett, and Dan Pfeiffer . [10]

Favreau was born at Winchester Hospital and raised in nearby North Reading, Massachusetts , [2] [11] the son of Lillian ( née DeMarkis), a schoolteacher, and Mark Favreau. His father is of French Canadian descent and his mother is of Greek descent . [12] His grandfather, Robert Favreau, was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and described by Favreau as a " New England Republican ." [13] [14] Favreau graduated from the Jesuit College of the Holy Cross in 2003 as his class's valedictorian , [15] [16] with a degree in political science . [17]

At Holy Cross, he was treasurer and debate committee chairman for the College Democrats , and studied classical piano. [15] From 1999 to 2000, he served on the Welfare Solidarity Project, eventually becoming its director. In 2001, Favreau worked with Habitat for Humanity and a University of Massachusetts Amherst program to bring visitors to cancer patients.

In 2002, he became head of an initiative to help unemployed individuals improve their résumés and interview skills. He also earned a variety of honors in college, including the Vanicelli Award; being named the 2001 Charles A. Dana Scholar; memberships in the Political Science Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha , the College Honors Program, the Sociology Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta , and was awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship in 2002. [15] He was an editor on his college newspaper, and during summers in college, he earned extra income selling newspapers as a telemarketer, while also interning in John Kerry's offices. [18]

He joined Senator John Kerry 's 2004 presidential campaign soon after graduation from the College of the Holy Cross. [3] While working for the Kerry campaign, his job was to assemble audio clips of talk radio programs for the Kerry camp to review for the next day. When the Kerry campaign began to falter at one point, they found themselves without a speechwriter, and Favreau was promoted to the role of deputy speechwriter. Following Kerry's defeat, Favreau became dispirited with politics, and was uncertain if he would do such work again. [16] Favreau first met Obama (then an Illinois State Senator running for the U.S. Senate), while still working for Kerry, backstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as Obama was rehearsing his keynote address . Favreau, then 23 years old, interrupted Obama's rehearsal, advising the soon-to-be-elected Senator that a rewrite was needed because Kerry wanted to use one of the lines. [18]

Obama communications aide Robert Gibbs , who had worked for Kerry's campaign, recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent writer, and in 2005 he began working for Barack Obama in his U.S. Senate office before joining his presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 2006. [19] 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 his theory of writing. [16] 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." [20]

Favreau led a speechwriting team for the campaign that included Ben Rhodes and Cody Keenan . [18] For his work with Obama in the campaign, he would wake as early as 5 a.m., and routinely stayed up until 3 a.m. working on speeches. [18] His leadership style among other Obama speechwriters was very informal. They would often meet in a small conference room, discussing their work late into the evening over takeout 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 was planning to hire more speechwriters to assist him, but conceded he was unsure of how to manage them. According to him, "My biggest strength isn't the organization thing." [20]

He has likened his position to " Ted Williams ' batting coach", because of Obama's celebrated abilities as a speaker and writer. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said of Favreau, "Barack trusts him... And Barack doesn't trust too many folks with that—the notion of surrendering that much authority over his own words." [18] In Obama's own words, Favreau was his "mind reader". [21] He and Obama share a fierce sports rivalry between the Boston Red Sox , favored by Favreau, and the Chicago White Sox , favored by Obama. [2] When the White Sox defeated the Red Sox 3–0 in the 2005 American League playoffs , Obama swept off Favreau's desk with a small broom. [18] During the campaigns, he was obsessed with election tracking polls, jokingly referring to them as his "daily crack". At points during the campaign, he felt overwhelmed by his responsibilities and would turn to Axelrod and his friends for advice. [20]

Favreau has declared that the speeches of Robert F. Kennedy and Michael Gerson have influenced his work, [22] and has expressed admiration for Peggy Noonan 's speechwriting, citing a talk given by Ronald Reagan at Pointe du Hoc as his favorite Noonan speech. Gerson also admires Favreau's work, and sought him out at an Obama New Hampshire campaign rally to speak with the younger speechwriter. [23] Favreau was the primary writer of Obama's inauguration address of January 2009. The Guardian describes the process as follows:

"The inaugural speech has shuttled between them [Obama and Favreau] four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the President-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer. Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speechwriters, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in a Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft." [21]

When President Obama assumed office in 2009, Favreau was appointed Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting. [3] He became the second-youngest chief White House speechwriter on record, after James Fallows . [19] His salary was $172,200 a year. [24]

Favreau has said his work with Obama will be his final job in the realm of politics, saying, "Anything else would be anticlimactic." [25] In regard to his post-political future, he said, "Maybe I'll write a screenplay, or maybe a fiction book based loosely on what all of this was like. You had a bunch of kids working on this campaign together, and it was such a mix of the serious and momentous and just the silly ways that we are. For people in my generation, it was an unbelievable way to grow up." [20]

In March 2013, Favreau left the White House, along with Tommy Vietor , to pursue a career in private sector consulting and screenwriting. [26] [22] Together, they founded the communications firm Fenway Strategies. From 2013 to 2016, Favreau wrote sporadically for the Daily Beast . [27] In 2016, after the November presidential election was won by Donald Trump , Favreau, Vietor and Jon Lovett founded Crooked Media . Favreau co-hosts Crooked's premier political podcast Pod Save America with Dan Pfeiffer , Vietor and Lovett. In the wake of the new Republican healthcare bill, the AHCA , he coined the term "Wealthcare".

He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Let America Vote , a voting rights organization founded by fellow Crooked Media host Jason Kander . [28]

Favreau was named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time magazine in 2009. [29] In the same year he was ranked 33rd in the GQ "50 Most Powerful in D.C." and featured in the Vanity Fair "Next Establishment" list. [30] [31] Favreau was one of several Obama administration members in the 2009 "World's Most Beautiful People" issue of People magazine. [32] Executive Producer for the podcast This Land , and was nominated for a 2021 Peabody Award .

On December 5, 2008, a picture of Favreau grabbing the breast of a cardboard cut-out of then-Senator Hillary Clinton was posted on Facebook. [33] Clinton had recently been announced as Obama's nominee for U.S. Secretary of State . [34] Favreau called Senator Clinton's staff to offer an apology. The senator's office responded by joking that "Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application." [35] [36] [22]

In June 2010, the website FamousDC obtained a picture of Favreau along with Assistant White House Press Secretary Tommy Vietor, playing beer pong after taking off their shirts at a restaurant in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. [37] This event attracted criticism from the press because of its timing during the height of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill . [38] [39] [40]

He is the older brother of Andy Favreau, a professional TV and movie actor. [41] On May 23, 2014, Favreau was awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree by his alma mater, Holy Cross, where he also gave the commencement address. [42] On June 17, 2017, Favreau married Emily Black, daughter of federal Judge Timothy Black , at her family's vacation home in Biddeford Pool , Maine . [43] Their son, Charlie, was born in August 2020. [44] [45] Jon and his wife have had their second son, Teddy, in December 2023. [46]


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Jon Favreau

WSB Exclusive Speaker

Founder, Crooked Media, Host of Pod Save America; Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama (2009-2013)

A mastermind in crafting the most evocative and unforgettable speeches of our time, Jon Favreau, shares his insights and experiences from working alongside the President and provides inspiration to future leaders entering lives of public service.

Jon Favreau'S SPEAKING FEE Under $25,000

Presidents’ words can move people, persuade a country and define their place in history. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “Speech is power.” President Barack Obama’s director of speechwriting, Jon Favreau, not only rose to the challenge of being the second-youngest chief speechwriter in White House history but crafted some of the most evocative and unforgettable speeches of our time, unleashing the voice of a new generation. Considered one of the President’s most trusted and influential staffers, often referred to as his “mind reader,” Favreau played an indispensable role in the development—and success—of his most pivotal speeches. He began working with then-Senator Obama in 2005 as his speechwriter and transitioned to the 2008 presidential campaign. From the iconic “Yes We Can” 2008 New Hampshire primary night speech to the historic inaugural addresses of 2009 and 2013, Favreau’s work captured the historical significance of Barack Obama’s presidency, while connecting the zeitgeist of a nation with the message of its leader. Featured in TIME magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” and in GQ’s “50 Most Powerful People in D.C.,” Favreau is the co-founder of communications firm, Fenway Strategies, co-host of one of America’s most popular podcasts, Keepin’ It 1600 , and a columnist for The Ringer . Providing audiences with an intimate glimpse of his experiences in the White House, Favreau shares his unique insights that will compel future leaders in their fields to reach their full potential.

Featured Videos

Jon Favreau and Wesley Morris on the 2016 Election

Jon Favreau | Life as Obama’s Speechwriter

Jon Favreau (May 9, 2016) | Charlie Rose

Jon Favreau’s Speech Topics

The journey into a life of public service.

When Jon Favreau—director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama (2009-2013)—joined the White House at age 27, he became the second-youngest chief speechwriter in United States history. Sharing illuminating anecdotes from a career spent working alongside the Commander in Chief on the two most pivotal presidential campaigns in recent history, in the West Wing and throughout the world, Favreau conveys his own life experiences, his aspirations to balance idealism with the reality of politics and insights to inspire others to consider public service and develop their skills as future leaders.

Words Matter: Storytelling with President Obama in an Age of Sound Bites

The significance of meaningful and effective words cannot be overrated, especially when a critical message is needed to stand out in a 24/7 news cycle and break through the constant noise of social media. Jon Favreau—director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama (2009-2013)—knows this all too well as he has worked on some of the most important communications coming from the OvalOffice. According to Obama chief advisor David Axelrod, he has had his “stamp on all the great speeches from 2005 to early 2013” and always sought to tell a compelling story rather than string together a collection of sound bites. However, it is not simply a sheer talent with words that has made Favreau a success. While his rhetorical prowess has played a role, what sets Favreau above the rest is his unique ability to “see” or get behind the words—to capture the essence of an issue and create dialogue that clearly and powerfully articulates what it is about that issue that matters and why we should care. As former right-hand man and “mind reader” to arguably one of the greatest orators in United States history, Favreau offers his audiences valuable insight on how precisely—from conception to delivery—to “get behind the words we speak.” In the process, he discusses the significance of “mining” resources for inspiration, creating scripts that speak from and to the heart and “walking the walk” of talk.

What other organizations say about Jon Favreau

Jon Favreau is such an amazing person! Today was one of the most beautiful graduations that Greengates has ever had. Our students, teachers and parents were more than impressed. Jon’s speech was perfect, he was perfect! Education Programs

Jon Favreau was fantastic and a huge hit with our crowd! I think everyone was impressed with how smart and down-to-earth he is. He was incredibly gracious to take pictures and chat with several speechwriters before his presentation. Publishing

Thank you so much for your work to make the Jon Favreau lecture possible! We had a fantastic experience, and the students in attendance really enjoyed his speech. Jon was very engaging with our students at dinner and the reception following the lecture, and they are still talking about how much they liked him! Universities & Colleges

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Former Obama Speechwriter Jon Favreau On His Podcast, Hillary, And Working In The White House

In 2004 Jon Favreau (the former Obama speechwriter and podcast host, not the actor/director) was working for John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president at the time, as a speechwriter. One day he was assigned to deliver some bad news to a young Senate candidate from Illinois named Barack Obama; a line from a speech Obama was to give at the Democratic National Convention needed to be cut out. How he came to be a person tasked with delivering this news to Obama was something of a fortunate accident.

“I basically only got the job because I was a press assistant on the campaign, and we were losing to Howard Dean, and the campaign was running out of money and there was a big shake-up and all these people got fired, and they needed a deputy speechwriter and at that point they couldn’t really afford to hire a real one,” Favreau wrote in New York magazine earlier this year. “No one really wanted to join what looked like a sinking ship.”

Kerry wound up losing the 2004 election to George W. Bush, but Obama won his race and soon needed a speechwriter for his Senate staff. The two met for an interview, one that Favreau termed “the most easygoing interview I’ve ever had,” and at the end Obama said, “You seem nice enough, so let’s give this a whirl.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Favreau left the Obama administration in 2013 to pursue a career as a private consultant, founding Fenway Strategies with Tommy Vietor, Obama’s former National Security Spokesman. And earlier this year he — along with co-host Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama advisor — launched the Keepin’ It 1600 podcast on Bill Simmons’ The Ringer podcast network. Former Obama White House staffers Vietor and Jon Lovett are also regulars on the show . Together, the four former Obama White House colleagues discuss the 2016 election and politics in general. It’s become a must-listen for political junkies and people curious about the 2016 election.

We spoke to Favreau recently about the podcast, how he came to respect Hillary Clinton, and what it was like working for President Obama, among other things.

So how did it come to be that the guy who helped put words into the mouth of one of the more eloquent leaders in world history is now hosting a podcast?

I’ve known Bill [Simmons] since the first campaign, since Obama’s campaign in 2008, and that’s only because we both went to the same college, Holy Cross. He was still The Sports Guy writing for ESPN at the time and one day he wrote something along the lines of, “Oh, I heard that Obama’s speech writer is a Holy Cross grad, who’s also from the Boston area, like me.” I’d grown up reading his columns all the time, so I thought that was pretty cool. Then we got in touch through mutual friends. But I did not ever listen to podcasts when I lived in Washington, D. C. I sort of knew about Marc Maron’s podcast, but I wasn’t really a big podcast guy.

Why not? Did you just not have the time?

Mainly because I just didn’t drive many places. It’s a smaller city.

Ah, gotcha.

Then when I got to Los Angeles — I moved to Los Angeles about 2 years ago this week, actually — I ran into Simmons, who also lives here. He was like, “Oh, I gotta get you on the podcast to do an interview about the election since there’s so much interest in politics.” So, we do this interview on his podcast and after he was like, “You know, that went really well. What do you think about hosting a podcast for my new site, The Ringer? We don’t have anyone doing anything about politics or national affairs or anything like that.” My first reaction was that this could be a lot of fun, but also, how the hell do you do a podcast? I was like, I can do interviews pretty well at this point but I don’t know if I can host something. I don’t really have that skill. But I figured why not give it a whirl? I was at a point in my life where I was out of politics, and I was happy to be away from it. But once this election rolled around, and it had also been a couple years since I’d been involved in politics, I started missing it a lot. I missed talking about it and writing about it. It was a perfect opportunity and perfect outlet to continue ranting about politics, especially during this election when there’s so much to say.

Yeah, “so much to say” is kind of an understatement.

So Dan [Pfeiffer] and I just sort of started it up. The podcast basically was just an audio version for everyone else to hear the conversations that Dan and I would have all the time. We’d have this conversation also with Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett, who also became part of the podcast. It was only natural. The four of us have spent most of our days, or a lot of our days, talking about politics to each other and we have for a long time ever since we left the White House.

I suppose that’s part of the reason why it works so well is, like you said, you guys have all been buddies for so long and you’re just kind of naturally having the conversations that you would have anyway. It actually makes perfect sense when you put it that way.

It was a perfect fit, this crew of Obama White House alumni deciding that we’d start up a podcast.

Talking about working in the White House and that Simmons podcast you were a guest on, I vaguely remember something you said about Hillary on it; obviously you guys had a very combative primary race against Clinton in 2008, and when she became part of the team as Secretary of State, you and others were a little bit skeptical of her. Then once you guys got familiar with her and started working with her you had a complete change of heart on how you feel about her.

Yeah, I just gained a lot of respect for her. It was a very difficult primary. Barack Obama won it, obviously, and I’m proud of the race we ran, but I also think in the heat of a campaign, each candidate is caricatured by the other side. I faced the challenge that a lot of Americans have faced. You see Hillary from afar and you’ve known about her for so long and you see what the media perception of her is, and I think she’s cautious by nature in how she speaks. A lot of people know about her but a lot of people don’t really know her. I remember those first couple cabinet meetings in the White House, and the cabinet would sit all around the table and all the staffers would sit around behind them or in the back of the room in the cheap seats. You listen to the cabinet meeting go on and Obama would go around to each cabinet secretary and ask for their thoughts on things. He’d get to Hillary and I was just always so impressed with her knowledge and her experience. She was always impeccably prepared.

I was also impressed by the people she surrounded herself with in the White House. We ended up getting along with her staff a lot better than I think any of us thought we would. Everyone got along with her a lot better than we thought we would. Obama believed in her before anyone else in the administration did. I think probably if you could poll most of the staff, “Should Obama pick Hillary as Secretary of State?” we all would have said, “No.” But he was the adult. He realized that they had a lot more in common than they did differences. And it was a good pick!

As someone who’s been so close to the epicenter of power in the United States, are there any things that the average person may not worry about that you worry about with a Trump presidency? You know, the stuff that isn’t so obvious like him starting wars over petty slights or launching nuclear attacks?

It’s hard to get past the worry that he’ll start wars and he’ll launch nuclear attacks.

[Laughter.] Yeah, that’s obviously huge.

Here’s the thing, I believed in Barack Obama when I started working for him because his beliefs on issues that I cared about lined up with my own. There was also an authenticity thing; I thought that this guy seems real. He doesn’t seem phony and bullshitty like a lot of politicians. Those were the reasons that I started working for him. Once he got to the White House, there was a third reason that I was so happy that he was there because he had the temperament and the personality for it. I would have underplayed those characteristics before I had been in the White House, but there were countless crises that he had to deal with over the next 8 years, and he was more cool than anyone who ever worked for him. He didn’t allow himself to be swayed by emotion or the news cycle.

Remember the BP oil spill? Everyone was going insane about this. It would rile all of us up at the White House, but the president didn’t rile up. You can’t rile up Barack Obama because he would sit there and be like, “I don’t care about the news cycle. I don’t care if I’m unpopular for a while. What I care about is fixing the problem. What I care about is making the right decision. I will make the right decision and if I lose because of that, then I lose because of it. Maybe I won’t. Maybe it’ll be the right decision.” He put the right decision before he put politics and what people thought of him and especially what conventional wisdom in Washington told him to do. I think Trump does not read beyond headlines. His knowledge is only as deep as what you would know if you passed by CNN while flipping channels and saw a chyron. Watching CNN on mute and just looking at the chyrons, that is the level of intelligence and knowledge that Donald Trump has.

Like a lot of Americans who are only scanning headlines on Facebook and forming opinions based on them. But those people aren’t trying to be president.

When you’re in the White House and you’re making life or death decisions every single day, you have to have some sort of moral internal compass and some level of basic knowledge to make sure that the decision you’re making is the right one. Trump doesn’t have that and he doesn’t surround himself with anyone who has that either.

Do you miss being in Obama’s inner circle at all? I know your life is completely different now. You live in LA. Things probably could not be more different than what it was during your time in the White House.

I miss it on the good days. My answer is I miss it on the good days, and I miss it on the bad days. The days that I don’t miss it are all the other days.

Interesting. What do you mean by that?

I miss it on the bad days because I’ll always have intense guilt that I’m not there to help out my pals, my friends that are still in the White House, and of course the President. I’m like, “I wish I was there to help everyone right now. I would pitch in because they’re going through a tough time.” On the good days, some of these incredible speeches that Obama’s given since I left, I’d be like, “Ah, I wish I was there to help with that speech.” I wish I was part of that because I had so much fun with those guys over the years and it would have been so great to stay up until 2 in the morning with them working on those speeches. All the days in between where nothing bad or good happened, and it was just a slog until late at night, I don’t miss that.

This is kind of a random question, but do you watch Veep ? The HBO show?

Yeah, I do.

How close is the absurdity portrayed on that show to the real thing? Does any of it ring true to you at all?

Yeah, it does. A lot. Real politics is a cross between Veep and West Wing . It’s not quite as starry-eyed, music swelled in the background, idealistic as West Wing , and it’s not quite as cynical and screw-bally as Veep is. It’s somewhere in between. I think Veep captures something essential about politics that no other show has. And by the way, I think House of Cards is a complete joke. There’s no resemblance from anything that I’ve experienced.

Interesting!

Yeah, it’s so silly. It’s fun though. I watch House of Cards all the time, but it doesn’t resemble politics in any way.

When you look back at the past few years of your life do you ever pinch yourself and think, “Holy shit, I’ve been really lucky to have been in the right place at the right time?”

All the time. I also look back and I’m very grateful that there were a few people in politics who took a chance on me that, were it not for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

What do you think you would be doing? I think I remember reading something where you said that after working for John Kerry you were very close to just getting out of politics altogether.

I was always about to go to law school.

[Laughter.] Of course!

I still have LSAT prep book in my bookshelf that I will never use. It was, “Let’s go to law school because I don’t know what else to do.” I graduated from Holy Cross and was trying to figure out what to make of my life after that, and then I told my parents that I was going to work for Kerry. They were very supportive and they told me to make sure to go to law school after the Kerry campaign. Then I was like, “I want to take a chance and work with this guy, Barack Obama, in the Senate. Don’t worry, I’ll do this for a couple years and then I’ll go to law school because there’s no way Obama’s running for president in 2008 because he’s way too young and way too new.” And now here we are.

Incredible. Speaking of Obama, have you reached out to him about being on the podcast?

Obviously we’ll have to do it at some point. The podcast folks in us are desperate for him to do it, but the former staffers in us know how annoying it is to fill a media request.

I totally get that.

I feel bad about pushing it too hard because it’s us, and I know his time is valuable, but selfishly we would love to have him on. Next time I see the communications crew who are still in the White House, we might have to chat.

You can listen to the Keepin’ It 1600 podcast on Soundcloud or subscribe to it via iTunes .

Jon Favreau

Speechwriter for president obama.

TRANSCRIPT: JON FAVREAU INTERVIEW

OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION

Jon Favreau working on a speech with President Barack Obama.

Jon Favreau is a political commentator, podcaster and the former Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Favreau first began writing for Obama in 2005 during his first term as a US Senator and held the role as head speechwriter throughout the 2008 campaign and presidency, until 2013. During Obama’s presidency, Favreau became the second-youngest chief White House speechwriter on record. Over the course of eight years, Favreau had a hand in crafting nearly every major speech Obama delivered. In 2017, a few years after leaving the White House, Favreau co-founded Crooked Media, where he is a co-host of Pod Save America and the host of The Wilderness.

"Half the people think I write Obama's speeches; the other half think I'm on 'Entourage.' So I'm at the level of fame where people kind of know who I am, but they confuse me with other people." Jon Favreau

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Beginnings: The Breakthrough Moment

Jon favreau, speechwriter, for the first time, obama sees it and he’s like, i actually don’t have that many edits’..

Published Jan 12, 2016

I started writing speeches for John Kerry when I was 21. And I basically only got the job because I was a press assistant on the campaign, and we were losing to Howard Dean, and the campaign was running out of money and there was a big shake-up and all these people got fired, and they needed a deputy speechwriter and at that point they couldn’t really afford to hire a real one. No one really wanted to join what looked like a sinking ship. He went on to have a whole general election, but throughout that whole time, I always sort of thought that I had landed the job by accident. As a writer, you can never tell if you’re good anyway without doubting yourself.

I met with Obama after Kerry lost and Obama won the Senate seat. Robert Gibbs had recruited me for this job because he was my boss when I was with the Kerry campaign. And he’s like, Look, Obama’s never worked with a speechwriter before in his life he’s written all his own stuff. But now he’s a senator; he’s going to need to learn to work with someone, whether he likes it or not. And when I met with Obama he was unbelievably nice, we had a great conversation, it was the most easygoing interview I’ve ever had. And at the very end he said, Well, I still don’t think I need a speechwriter, but you seem nice enough, so let’s give this a whirl.

So I start with Obama through the Senate, thinking, you know, I had been at the convention when he gave that speech in 2004 . That was all him, and that hung over my head the entire time I started writing for him. Because I thought, Never will I help write a speech like this, right? He is the master I was there when he gave one of the best speeches I heard, and he wrote it. And his first two years in the Senate, I think we wrote some decent speeches together, and then he announced for president, and it’s hard to remember now but for most of 2007, he was badly trailing Hillary Clinton. And on the stump, he would go and give 40-, 50-minute speeches in Iowa that were long and sort of rambling and workmanlike, and he’s better than that but it was a tough race, and when a race gets tough there’s more pressure and everyone starts yelling at you, you start just going out and saying all kinds of different things and making your speeches longer. The knock against him was Oh, she’s all substance and you’re all style. So to counter that I think Obama went out and tried to show everyone just how smart he was on every issue, and the speeches became very long and involved. And, you know, I’m Mr. Speechwriter in the campaign, and I’m like, Well, I’m not fixing this, so I’m sort of a failure here.

And so now it’s like October of 2007, and there’s literally headlines that say I had one hanging up from the New York Post that said, Hillary Ready for Her Coronation . We were down in Iowa, and our last chance there is the speech that Obama’s giving at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Iowa. A couple of us that had been with the Kerry campaign in 2004 remembered that that was the speech that Kerry gave that sort of turned the race around and helped him beat Dean in Iowa. And so we looked at the speech the same way. Now, the interesting thing about this speech is, all the candidates deliver this speech. It’s the last time that all the candidates deliver a speech one after another before the caucusing begins, and the whole media’s there national media, local media. There’s no prompter, and there’s a time limit of about ten minutes. So you have to deliver a ten-minute speech without a prompter and you have to make your best case for your candidacy. All the pressure was on this speech; everyone was like, This is our only hope here. Maybe we can pull even with Hillary after this or catch up in the polls. And because there was so much pressure on it, writing and drafting were impossible there’s a million conference calls with everyone saying, Emphasize this, emphasize that. Me and Ben Rhodes and Adam Frankel probably went through ten, 15 drafts of that speech, staying up till three in the morning, having them rejected the next day by people because everyone was so involved. Obama didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say, and Axelrod didn’t know, and there was all kinds of calls and meetings.

So, finally, there was a speech planned a couple weeks before the JJ that we sort of just made up it was basically a year before the actual election, right? Like the anniversary of the year before the real election. And no one on the campaign was really paying attention to that speech because everyone was so focused on the JJ. So what I did is I pretty much wrote a speech that I thought he should give at the JJ. I kind of snuck it in there. But I always remember now: The night that he was on SNL, I had a bunch of people over at my apartment in Chicago. He was supposed to give that speech that I had written, the practice speech, that day. I hadn’t heard how the speech went but I had a bunch of people over at my apartment to look at the SNL skit. It’s like 11, 11:30. And suddenly I get a call from Axelrod and he said, Obama just gave the speech totally blew up the place. He loves it and he says that that’s what the JJ needs to be. But the trick is, he needs you to cut this 20-minute speech down to a ten-minute speech so he can start practicing, and he needs you to do it by tomorrow morning. So I was in my apartment with everyone over, I’ve had a beer or two, but immediately I kick everyone out, I change over to Red Bull and coffee, and I walked down to the campaign at midnight and stayed up all night until about 10 or 11 a.m. the next day, and I wrote the JJ speech. And I finished the draft and for the first time, you know, Obama sees it and he’s like, I actually don’t have that many edits. I think it’s a pretty good speech. So he practices that speech, practices memorizing that speech more than I had ever seen him do before, because he’s never really had to memorize a speech word for word. Like when we were at a hotel in Des Moines a couple weeks before the speech, if you walked by Obama’s hotel room you could hear him practicing the speech to himself and the mirror, just trying to memorize it.

There are two important moments in that speech . One paragraph distilled the whole race of why Obama and not Hillary at the time, right? Which was like, This part of Jefferson and Jackson and of Kennedy and Roosevelt knows that we’re better off when we lead not by polls but by principle; not by calculation but by conviction. And that’s what this party’s about. Something like that. And then there was this nice thing at the end that a lot of people didn’t notice in the campaign just because it wasn’t central to the message against Hillary, but he sort of quieted down at the very end of that speech and he said, I’ll never forget that I would never be where I am right now unless someone somewhere stood up for me when it was hard. You know, when it wasn’t easy. And then because that one person stood up, a few more stood up, and then a few thousand more stood up, and then millions more stood up, and because they stood up we changed the world. And that was sort of the first time we linked the history of him possibly being the first black president and civil rights with a message of the campaign, which was grassroots organizing to make a difference. And that’s sort of how we ended that speech, and that was always pretty meaningful to me.

So we get to the JJ, and somehow, by the luck of the draw, the order of the candidates’ speeches was that all the other candidates go first, Hillary goes second to last, and Obama goes last. So all these candidates go, get out of the way. Hillary gives her speech and the crowd’s all quiet for Hillary because she’s obviously the front-runner. And she gives a speech that is like all I mean, you could tell there were a lot of slogans that were shopped around in her campaign. So the speech was something about Turn up the heat, turn America around, and all the supporters in the stands were supposed to yell, Turn up the heat! It didn’t work that well. And then there’s a pause and then Obama gets up there and he delivered way better than it was written the JJ speech. I was sitting there watching all the reporters, and all the reporters were like, That’s it that’s the speech. This is something big. The crowd went completely insane. Even some of the other candidates’s supporters were going nuts.

The last time I had been in a room where he gave a speech like that was 2004, when I was a kid working for John Kerry. And to have been there in Iowa at that moment when I had helped work on the speech and just help sort of see, you know, history unfolding in this arena, it was incredible and it was the first moment in my life that I thought to myself, Okay, maybe I got the hang of this. From then on it felt like something clicked and then we had the Iowa victory speech and the New Hampshire speech, the “Yes We Can speech and all that other kind of stuff. And it worked out from then on, but the JJ was sort of the first moment that I was like, Okay, I think I might have something to contribute here. I think I can be of use. That to me was probably the breakthrough.

It was also the first time I thought we would win. I mean, when we started, we thought it was a long shot Who knows? but then August, September roll around, October even, and we’re like, I don’t know if we’re gonna do this. It seems we might come up short. And then he gave that speech and it was great because most people from Chicago were in Des Moines that night, the whole campaign was there, and we a couple of us had driven out from Chicago to go see the speech, me and my friend, just to be there. And you know, it was the first time that I thought, It’s gonna happen. It could actually happen and turn this around.

But it didn’t really resonate for me then. Not yet. It didn’t until we won Iowa. But I remember the first time I saw him after we won Iowa, he came out of his hotel room after editing that speech, and he just looked at me and he goes, Speeches, man. And he gave me a big hug and I was like, All right.

Table of Contents: Jan 11, 2016 issue of New York | Subscribe!

The 27 Year Old Speechwriter That’s the Man Behind the Man: Jon Favreau

Hear the name Jon Favreau and you might think of Vince Vauhn's counterpart in the classic movie Swingers. But look a little closer and you'll instead find a 27 year old speechwriter who's words mean much more than yours or mine. As Obama's chief speechwriter he's in charge of crafting some of Obama's most important speeches, including his inaugural speech that's set to be delivered on January 20th. In reading the article you'll find a guy who's been serendipitously cast into the limelight but instead of buckling under the immense pressure, he's handling it with panache. Washington Post article with some excerpts: The responsibility “He looks like he's in college and everybody calls him Favs, so you're like, ‘This guy can't be for real, right?' ” said Ben Rhodes, another Obama speechwriter. “But it doesn't take long to realize that he's totally synced up with Obama. . . . He has access to everything and everybody. There's a lot weighing on his shoulders.” Still more daunting is the list of things Favreau can't think about as he writes the inaugural. He went for a run to the Lincoln Memorial last month and stopped in his tracks when he imagined the mall packed with 3 million people listening to some of his words. A few weeks later, Favreau winced when Obama spokesman Bill Burton reminded him: “Dude, what you're writing is going to be hung up in people's living rooms!” “If you start thinking about what's at stake, it can get paralyzing,” Favreau said. The relationship In four years together, Obama and Favreau have perfected their writing process. Before most speeches, Obama meets with Favreau for an hour to explain what he wants to say. Favreau types notes on his laptop and takes a crack at the first draft. Obama edits and rewrites portions himself — he is the better writer, Favreau insists — and they usually work through final revisions together. If Favreau looks stressed, Obama sometimes reassures him: “Don't worry. I'm a writer, too, and I know that sometimes the muse hits you and sometimes it doesn't. We'll figure it out together.” The big break They stumbled upon it by accident in 2004, when Obama, just elected to the Senate, needed to hire a speechwriter. He brought Favreau, then 23, into the Senate dining room for an interview on his first day in office. They talked for 30 minutes about harmless topics such as family and baseball before Obama turned serious. “So,” he said. “What's your theory on speechwriting?” “A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff,” Favreau said. “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.' ” “I think this is going to work,” Obama said. The pressure – the highs and lows: All told, Favreau spent more than 18 months on almost constant deadline, staying up until 5 a.m. during the financial crisis to craft speeches for the next day and waking up at 8 a.m. to obsess over the daily tracking polls, which he started calling “daily crack.” When the pressure wore on Favreau, he unwound like a 27-year-old, sending prank e-mails to friends at the Obama offices or playing the video game Rock Band in the Lincoln Park group house he shared with six campaign staffers. He visited Axelrod's office and sought advice. He called his best friend, Josh Porter, when he felt ready to break down. “A few times he called at midnight, sounding just done,” Porter said. “He would be like, ‘I don't know if I can do this anymore. I'm in over my head. I'm starting to freak out.' ” But there were also moments of euphoria, when Favreau would catch himself choking up while riding in the motorcade or rehearsing with Obama backstage. Before he entered Grant Park on election night, to stand in the VIP section with his parents and younger brother to hear Obama speak, Favreau sent a quick e-mail to Porter at 9:07 p.m. The subject line read: “Dude.” “We won,” Favreau wrote. “Oh my God.” The ending to his story No matter how it goes, Favreau believes this will be his last job in politics — “anything else would be so anticlimactic,” he said. Someday, he wants to write in his own voice, for himself. “Maybe I'll write a screenplay, or maybe a fiction book based loosely on what all of this was like,” Favreau said. “You had a bunch of kids working on this campaign together, and it was such a mix of the serious and momentous and just the silly ways that we are. For people in my generation, it was an unbelievable way to grow up.”

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Departing Obama Speechwriter: 'I Leave This Job Actually More Hopeful'

Behind most politicians is a speechwriter, typing rapidly somewhere in a small office and trying to channel the boss's voice.

The man who has held perhaps the most prominent speechwriting job of the new millennium is Jon Favreau, a 31-year-old from Massachusetts who was President Obama's chief speechwriter until this month. He started writing for Obama when the president was just a senator in 2005.

He tells Audie Cornish, host of All Things Considered , that writing for the president means walking a line between two worlds.

"You're trying to balance what the president would want to say with what people are looking to hear," he says. "But you need to strike the right balance, because if it's all what people want to hear, that's not true to who he is."

Jon Favreau, President Obama's former chief speechwriter, is pictured on the South Lawn of the White House in 2010. Charles Dharapak/AP hide caption

Favreau says his next stop after the White House is starting a communications consulting firm; he plans to write a screenplay based on his experiences.

"We'll see how long it takes for me to find my own voice again," he says.

Interview Highlights

On the writing process

"My challenge is to make sure that whatever he's thinking, whatever thoughts he has, we can get them down on paper, and we can shape the words to basically what he really wants to say. So our process is, I will sit down with him, we'll talk for 20 or 30 minutes, and he'll have lots of thoughts on the specific speech that he's going to give. And then I will go back, and I'll work with my team, and we will put together a draft that reflects the conversation that the president and I had.

"And then we'll start going back and forth. Sometimes he will just make line edits himself and send the draft back. Or sometimes he will want to take the speech in an entirely different direction, and he will write six or seven pages of scrawled handwriting on a yellow legal pad, and we'll go back at it that way."

On the editing process

"There have been times where I'll have a phrase in there and he'll take it out — and then I'll explain to him, 'Well, I put it in here because if we do it this way, maybe it'll be a sound bite or maybe we'll get a quote that way or, rhythmic-wise, it'll be better.' And ... once in a while he'll say, 'Oh, I think you're right, let's do it this way.' And sometimes he'll say, 'No, I think the way I had it was better.' And that's just how we work. We have a very honest relationship."

On collaborating on Obama's famous race speech

"When I talk about the speech, I always say, you know, the stuff in the speech that you could hear almost any other politician say is mostly the stuff that I contributed. ... Before he gave it, he called me after a long day of campaigning, and he spoke for an hour about what he wanted in that speech. He told me it was going to be random thoughts off the top of his head, and they were not random at all. He had the entire logical argument all ready. ... He laid out the whole thing."

On his departing thoughts

"I leave this job actually more hopeful than when I first got there, and that is because I think that the president went into this more realistically than many people thought that he did. I've been working on these speeches since 2005, and so I know that almost every speech, he makes sure we have the caveat that, 'This is going to be hard.' ... He's not mistaken about how difficult some of this stuff is."

An inside look at the White House with speechwriter Jon Favreau

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In the latest episode of Political Wire 's podcast , we chatted with Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for President Obama, about the Democrats' messaging strategy on ObamaCare, about what other politicians can learn from Obama's personality, and about the nexus between policy and communications in the White House.

Here are five takeaways:

1. Democrats should run on, not away from, ObamaCare : After a rocky rollout for the health insurance exchanges, a key part of the health-care reform law, Democrats have reasons to cheer up a bit ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. Millions of Americans have now picked or enrolled in health insurance through the exchanges or the law's Medicaid expansion, while three million young adults can stay on their parents' plans until age 26. Given that ObamaCare has started to turn the corner, Democrats shouldn't run from it, but on it, Favreau said: "Own it, and own it by talking about the millions of Americans who have the security of health care for the first time in their lives." Democrats should tell these kinds of stories especially when their Republican opponents attack ObamaCare, Favreau said.

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2. For Obama, losing to Hillary Clinton in 2008 wouldn't have been the end of the world : Early in the 2008 Democratic nomination process, Obama's presidential hopes against Hillary Clinton were low. Obama trailed Clinton by 20 or more points in the polls. But the idea of losing the race didn't bum out Obama. During the campaign, Favreau said, Obama once remarked that "if I lose this, I’ll go back to Chicago with my wife and kids and raise a family and have a very happy life. I don’t need this as some kind of self-validation."

3. To win over voters, politicians should aim for authenticity : It seems like a no-brainer, but it's easier said than done. "A lot of people are afraid of committing a gaffe or being perfect," Favreau said. Still, one reason behind Obama's political ascendancy is that voters saw him as being authentic and honest, Favreau said. Other politicians would benefit from striving for authenticity instead of continually changing their message to match voters' moods. Voters have a "finely honed BS detector," he said. "I think you should err on the side of authenticity, and err on the side of being who you are and saying what you believe."

4. Polling and consultants are useful, but only to an extent : Although authenticity may be a virtue, that doesn't mean that politicians shouldn't be aware of and use polling or political consulting to their advantage: "Politicians do that, that’s the whole nature of the business." But that prerogative has limitations. For example, polling can help politicians refine their communication style, but they shouldn't let it influence the substance. Moreover, polls are just one snapshot in time; one or two bad ones shouldn't make a politician freak out: "I think there’s a real danger of overreacting to the polls or focusing too much on them." Public opinion can be quite fluid at times. Obama, who has seen his own share of ups and downs, avoids worrying much about the polling of the day for that very reason, Favreau said.

5. Clinton is progressive enough for the Democrats' progressive wing : Favreau doesn't agree with political observers who think that progressives won't be happy with a Clinton candidacy in 2016. Clinton has a record of progressive accomplishments to her name, he argues: "This is someone who started her life with the Children’s Defense Fund." Should Clinton run in 2016, she will be a "formidable candidate" who "will represent the best ideals of the Democratic Party."

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Listen to the whole conversation here:

Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire , one of the earliest and most influential political websites. He also runs Wonk Wire and the Political Dictionary . Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and COO of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor. Goddard is also co-author of You Won â€” Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post , USA Today , Boston Globe , San Francisco Chronicle , Chicago Tribune , Philadelphia Inquirer, and Christian Science Monitor . Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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Politics in Pop Culture
– The Road to 2020

Jon Favreau: The voice behind a generational voice

By Noah Weiland / Dec. 1, 2013, 8:11 p.m.

Jon Favreau left the White House earlier this year after serving as President Obama’s Director of Speechwriting since 2005. A member of the President’s closest group of advisors on the Hill and in the White House, Favreau was a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics last spring, and is currently building his own communications strategy firm, Fenway Strategies, in Washington. Favreau sat down with the Gate to talk about blacking out in front of then-Senator Obama, writing mechanics, and the famous campaign speech he wrote after throwing a house party.

The Gate: This is less of a question than a demand: Tell me your best Joe Biden story that’s under ten minutes-long.

Jon Favreau: [Laughs] My best Joe Biden story is when the President’s personal secretary, Katie Johnson, left the White House. She was thrown many parties…[and] Joe Biden was kind enough...he said, “I want you and ten of your closest friends to come to the Naval Observatory and have a barbeque. Jill isn’t home, I’m there by myself, and it’d be great to have all you guys over.” And so Joe Biden invites us all over to the Naval Observatory, and he has an entire barbeque in the backyard, by the pool. And it’s not one of those things where you...you have to think--if any kind of politician did something like this, and you have all these people over, you have like a drop by, where the politician comes in and says hi, greets everyone for a little while and then says “Have fun, I’m gonna go do whatever.” Joe Biden spent like three or four hours out in the backyard with all of us, sitting and eating with us, and he told so many stories. There were three or four tables set up, and there was about six of us at a table, and he told so many stories about Southern senators and his time in the Senate--amazing story after amazing story, and he just held court. He gives us an entire tour of the Naval Observatory, a personally-led tour. And he’s got his dog, and at one point we’re out on the front lawn and he’s got his golf club, and he whacks the ball and the dog runs after it. It was such a great moment because you get how the public persona of Joe Biden is very much like his private persona, both because he’s very animated and loves telling stories, but also because he’s just this warm, wonderful person who took all this time out of his very busy schedule to hang out with a bunch of people, he, you know, maybe kind of knew.

Gate: What were you first interactions with Obama like?

Favreau : I first met President Obama when I was backstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. My job was to make sure that all of the speeches that were being delivered at the convention were on message with the Kerry campaign. And so I get a call at one point from the road, where John Kerry was traveling and working on his convention speech, that one of the speakers, a young state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama, was giving the keynote address, and he had a line in his speech that John Kerry had in his speech. And they asked me to go and talk to Obama and ask him to remove this line. I figured this was some kind of sick hazing ritual. So I walk into the room where Obama is practicing his convention speech for the very first time, and I see Robert Gibbs, who I knew because he had been my boss in the Kerry campaign when I was an assistant. And I ask Gibbs if he can talk to Obama about this line. He said, “I’m not talking to him! You talk to him!” So I walk up to Obama and mumble what I have to say, and he kind of leans over me and looks down and says, “Are you telling me I have to take out my favorite line in this speech?” At that point I blacked out for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden I was out in the hallway with David Axelrod, who I had just met for the first time. Axe said, “Don’t worry about it; we’re just going to rewrite the line together. It’s going to be fine.” And that was it--I thought that’d be the last time that I ever saw Barack Obama.

Gate: How did you get Obama’s attention after that backstage incident?

Favreau : After the campaign ended, and John Kerry lost, Robert Gibbs emailed me and told me Obama’s looking for a speechwriter. He’s never had one before, but now he needs to learn to work with one because he’s going to be very busy. He asked if I would have breakfast with him in the Senate. It’s his first week there, and he’s just getting used to the place. So we all go to the Senate cafeteria, and there’s the senators-only dining room where all the big wigs are eating, and Barack Obama just grabs his tray, and we sit in the cafeteria next to all the cooks and the waiters. The three of us sit down for breakfast, and Obama just starts asking me about my life, my family, why I got into politics, what college was like. He completely put me at ease. At the end of the interview he said, “You know, I still don’t think I need a speechwriter, but you seem nice enough, so let’s give this a whirl.”

Gate: How improbable was it that someone with your background ended up writing for someone like Barack Obama?

Favreau : David Remnick asked me once, “So you’re a white, twenty-something year-old from a suburb of Boston. How do you identify with the first black president?” I said, you know, look: One of the reasons that any famous speaker--a politician, political leader, or cultural leader--can inspire a nation or the world, is because they tap into certain shared experiences that anyone can relate to. Martin Luther King is a civil rights hero, but he is remembered as an American hero, because “I Have a Dream” can speak to anyone, whether you’re black or white or rich or poor. And not to compare him to Martin Luther King, but what Obama did in that 2004 Convention speech was speak about his own story--the specifics of which are very foreign to most Americans, but the values and the common experiences he speaks about are something anyone can relate to. So I’m very conscious of that, that I’m writing for someone who is always seeking to appeal to anyone, no matter who you are or where you come from, or how you started out.

Gate: In college, or even while you were writing speeches for Kerry, did you ever see yourself as someone who could write speeches for a President? How did your academic experience, or your private reading and writing, influence that transition?

Favreau : I didn’t know specifically that I wanted to be a speechwriter. I’ve always loved writing. I loved writing in college--I was the opinions editor of the newspaper at Holy Cross. I did the same thing in high school, so I was involved in journalism and writing that way. I also, as I got more into politics in college, started writing opinion columns about political issues on campus, and national political issues. By junior or senior year in college I was very interested in political writing, which landed me in the press/communications area of politics, which is what I did for Kerry. But it wasn’t until I really sat down next to the Kerry campaign’s chief speechwriter that I really thought to myself, “I’d really love to be a speechwriter. This sounds like a cool job.”

Gate: How does reading influence speechwriting?

Favreau : It’s something that keeps you full of new ideas, keeps you up to date on what’s going on around you, what the news is, what the political climate is, what the environment is. What I’ve read primarily while I was a speechwriter was the news, because you don’t have time to read anything else. You’re not reading fiction. I kept up to speed on every single political news story there was out there, and I would also be heavily involved in reading the recent research we did for the speeches--speeches of past presidents, historical anecdotes, and research about the policy I was writing about. When there’s free time, and you read something that’s more than just a straight political news story, I try to read long-form pieces in The New Yorker or New York Magazine or The Atlantic . The President reads all of those as well. He’s quite a voracious reader, and he still has historical biographies on his desk that he tries to break into once in a while.

Gate: Where do you think Obama’s very literary voice comes from?

Favreau : It’s interesting: I don’t really know. He kind of wrote Dreams From My Father out of nowhere. As he talks about in Dreams From My Father- -throughout his childhood and early adulthood--he was on this very long journey to discover who he was, and where he fit in in the world around him. I think that journey raised a lot of questions in his own mind that he answered through his writing.

Gate: How did you and Obama use older Presidential speechwriting to guide your own work?

Favreau I read a lot of FDR, Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, who obviously wasn’t president but wrote some of the best speeches, in my opinion. Lyndon Johnson wrote really great speeches. And then especially Bush and Clinton, as far as what presidents did who sat here in modern times, and maybe had a similar event--how they dealt with it. So there’s two things we’re looking for in past speeches: One is how did a president deal with a specific issue or policy that’s similar to the one we’re dealing with. And two--what kind of inspiration can we gain from the way this president spoke about this issue.

Gate: How has speechmaking formed Obama’s political identity?

Favreau : I think it’s very rare that a single speech launches a politician’s career into the national spotlight. There are a couple speeches that launched his career: the 2002 speech announcing his opposition to the war in Iraq, which is a very powerful speech he gave in Chicago that kind of put him on the map. The 2004 convention speech continued that...What he has done differently is break free from the typical political rhetoric that has invaded most of our politics today. He’s authentic; he tries to speak in an authentic way; he tries to be honest about issues that people are usually afraid to be honest about; he’s not a cautious speaker--to the extent that he can, he says what’s on his mind. When you think about the race speech, the Cairo speech--he will tackle issues in an honest way that you don’t usually expect from politicians. Speeches for him are a way to communicate authentically in a way that some other politicians have been afraid to do.

Gate: Is the success of the speechwriter dependent on having the same ear as the person he or she is writing speeches for? Is it more a matter of language or personality?

Favreau : I think personality helps, for sure. There are a lot of us who have worked for President Obama, and we all have different personalities. I think that if you expect to capture someone’s voice, and do it well, you need to know that person. You don’t need to know them right at the outset, but you need to get to know that person really well. Part of that is reading everything they’ve written and said, but a lot of it is just spending time with them, and not only getting to know the rhythms of that person’s speaking style, but how that person thinks, and you can only get that through a closer relationship. I think that people who try to capture someone’s voice who do it through five different layers of advisors will ultimately fail.

Gate: But did you already have the right kind of ear? Or can you just train yourself to speak a certain way?

Favreau : I think about politics very similarly to the way the President thinks about politics. A number of us do that work for him, so I think that helps. If I came to politics from a different viewpoint, not just if I had different views on specific issues, but if I had just kind of thought about it in a more conventional way, in a more top-down way, in a more Washington-centric way than I do, then I think I would have a harder time working for the President. I think because I came from a background at Holy Cross where I did some community service work and community organizing, and I believe very much in the power of ordinary people being able to do extraordinary things. That was part of my real world experience in college, but that’s also what I learned through sociology and political science, what I learned from the professors I had in school. So I think in that way we’re similar.

Gate: How did being Obama’s speechwriter influence the way you followed and interpreted news? Did you always have to think about events in relation to however you were going to translate them into the language of speeches?

Favreau : I follow news to know what the narrative is, to know what’s on reporters’ minds. People write many different stories, but there’s usually one theme or narrative out of any week. As a president, I don’t think you want to be reactive or responsive to every single narrative that comes out of the press, because they change with the weather, and with every hour. But at the same time, if you completely ignore what’s going on there, that’s the filter by which you can communicate to the American people, primarily. So you have to know what that is and be able to at least act like you’re aware.

Gate: Were you always nervous when you were reading the news that you’d have to sit down soon after and write something about it in the form of a speech? Did that train your mind to always have to be in that mode?

Favreau : Yeah, it does train your mind. Part of it is that this is something happening in the press; this is what everyone’s talking about on TV. I have to figure out how much we’re going to respond to that or not respond to it. It’s not my job alone; it’s the job of the communications director, the senior advisor. Everyone talks about it. The president makes decisions about this as well. But when it actually comes to the words and the lines, part of this is figuring out how exactly you’re going to shape it.

Gate: Is part of the fun as a speechwriter telling stories for someone else?

Favreau : I think most people are reluctant to talk about themselves, to make everything about themselves...As a speechwriter you can help the person you’re writing for bring out personal stories. When I got to the White House, he had this rich array of stories in Dreams From My Father and other places in his life, that when it made sense to put them in speeches about relevant topics in policy areas, I make sure to do that. It’s not just a political thing. I think you are a better storyteller when you draw from your own experiences.

Gate: You wrote a first draft of the Second Inaugural Address in a room in your parents’ house. Did you often feel a serious disconnect between the settings in which you wrote and the significance of what you wrote?

Favreau : I find that I do better if I have a lot of different places to go to. There’s very few times when I’ve sat in one place and drafted an entire speech. I can’t do that. I’ve been to many Starbucks. If I was writing a speech here, I’d write part of it in this office, then go back to my apartment, then try to find a coffee shop, then go outside by the lake. For me I have to go to as many different locations as possible.

Gate: What is President Obama like to work with? What is he like as a writer and editor in that personal of an environment?

Favreau : He’s easy to work with. We obviously write under incredibly high-pressure situations, which I’m always aware of, but he doesn’t necessarily make you aware of that. We were working on the Nobel Peace Prize speech right up until the last second, and Ben Rhodes and I were completely crazed and worried that we weren’t going to make it and thinking horrible thoughts. The President was just completely calm and collected, not worried, as if he had weeks and weeks. He calms you. You don’t expect the president to be calming. As a writer and editor, his edits always add the truth to the speech that’s been missing, that kernel of something that you wouldn’t hear a normal politician say. That’s what he always adds to speeches, substantively. Rhetorically, he has a great ear for rhythm and for really nice words and phrases and imagery that you wouldn’t normally put into a speech, that aren’t cliché, but bring the words on the paper to life.

Gate: There are these well-known photos of drafts of his speeches with his pen marks and edits all across the page. Is there a point at which he’s more concerned with diction and syntax than how the paragraphs are working together?

Favreau : It’s always in two stages: the first stage of different drafts of the speeches are substance. He’s worried about getting the substance right. That’s when he’ll reorder speeches or tell you, “I want this argument first,” or, “You haven’t talked enough about this policy,” or, “I want to make sure I make this argument.” So we go through many drafts that way. Once that’s set, then the back and forth is him just line editing. He doesn’t take pen to paper at the beginning stages when we’re dealing with substantive edits. Those he’ll tell me about. He’ll write on a separate piece of paper some ideas for me. But when he actually gets to the point where he’s marking up the page--that is just line edits, words, rhetoric, all that stuff.

Gate: When and where does he often work on his edits?

Favreau : Always at night. On big speeches like the State of the Union and the inaugural addresses, he’ll do it during the day in the Oval Office if he has an hour. Usually the line editing he can do during the day if he has an hour in the Oval, because it isn’t as labor-intensive. But when he really needs to think about the substance of a speech, he’ll do it at like 1, 2, 3 in the morning when he’s up.

Gate: Did you just get used to sitting right next to the President in the Oval Office with both of you looking at your Macbook? Was that ever weird to you?

Favreau : It’s funny--as a child, especially when I started getting interested in politics, the White House was this dream of mine. I had never had a White House tour. I had never been there. But when I finally arrived there, and I walked into the Oval for the first time with Barack Obama, it was like, “Wow, look where Barack Obama and all of us got. Look where we are right now.” And not, “I’m in the White House with the President.” I knew him for a couple of years before he got to the White House, so I never see him as “Oh my god it’s the President, and I’m sitting with the President.” It’s Barack Obama, who I’ve known for a long time. But The White House to us was still just, “wow.”

Gate: What are the different ways you guys talk to each other?

Favreau : There are many different ways to communicate with the President. Since he works so late at night, he’ll have to call me, so I’ll have to be aware that if my phone rings and it’s a blocked or private number, then it’s probably the White House operator telling me that the President is on the phone. Or we’ll email back and forth about a speech when he has some edits, or when he just needs to see me up in the residence or in the Oval, when there’s time for edits. During the day it’s much easier; he’ll just call me at my desk and I’ll run upstairs, and we’ll talk that way.

Gate: Where does the perception of him being so aloof come from?

Favreau : I honestly think that the aloof characterization comes from a view of the presidency that a lot of folks have in Washington, where the President is king and has a magic wand and can make any problem go away. If he can’t make a problem go away, all he has to do to make a problem go away is twist some arms and bring folks up to Camp David for a drink. Magically, all they care about is being wooed by the President. They don’t actually have constituencies or politics to deal with. They’re just sitting there in Congress waiting to be stroked by the President of the United States. That’s all. So I think that’s where the aloof characterization comes from. The truth is that the President is a people person: he talks all the time to members of Congress; he golfs with Boehner; he does all this stuff. But he has a wife and kids he wants to spend time with, and he’d rather have dinner with them than go to a Washington cocktail party. If he thought that going to a Washington cocktail party would pass his bill, he would cocktail it up all day long. But I think he’s realistic about what needs to get done to get certain pieces of legislation passed.

Gate: Is there a serious or harmful divide between the idealism of his language and the bureaucracy of presidential politics?

Favreau : I don’t think so, because I think he’s very clear-eyed in knowing that the idealism of the speeches is just that--it’s something to strive for. He’s very realistic about what is . He knows that the bureaucracy can be a pain; he knows that Congress can be partisan and gridlocked; he knows all the things that are getting in the way of passing the legislation he wants to pass. But that’s no reason to him to not speak in idealistic language and say, “Let’s reach for that. Let’s do better.” His basic philosophy can be summed up as, “We’re not going to fix everything, and not everything can be fixed, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, and that doesn’t mean that if we chip away at some of these big problems, even if we don’t solve them, that’s progress.”

Gate: You were part of a White House staff that’s been frequently criticized as being too insular, too Chicago-oriented. Why does that perception exist?

Favreau : I think it persists because it’s been the perception of every president. Bush, it was that he had too much of an Austin crowd. Clinton, they were too Arkansas. Washington always tells people who come to Washington that they need more Washington people. The sheer number of former Clinton and Carter people the President has hired, people from academia, people from the business world: Tim Geithner was from the Federal Reserve, Larry Summers was a Clinton person. It’s a pretty non-Chicago crowd, actually. But whenever things are going wrong, the poll numbers are down; there are a few common tropes that Washington likes to talk about: One is, “He’s too aloof! Too insular! Need to bring in more people! Need to shake up the staff! Need to get out of Washington!”

Gate: I know you’re interested in writing screenplays. What’s so appealing about political television that would draw you away from Washington?

Favreau : So I don’t think there’s anything appealing about political TV per se. I think what’s appealing to me is that I’m always looking for ways to reach people, to inspire people about the possibilities of public service who might not necessarily be political junkies, and who might not feel that politics is for them, and who might think that the whole thing is just cynical garbage, and everyone’s in it for themselves. I think there’s many ways to do that. But one of the most interesting ways for me is entertainment and culture as a way of reaching out to people and saying, “You know what? There’s some value here, and there’s some good things being done." I was inspired by The West Wing when I was in college, and my buddy and I have thought for a long time that we’re due for a younger, campaign-related version of The West Wing that doesn’t have to do with the president and his top advisors, but has to do with all the other people, especially the young people that get involved with these things.

Gate: What was your Washington work routine like? Did you often have to stay late at the White House?

Favreau : In a lot of ways it’s just like college. When there’s a paper due, there’s nothing else you do but the paper, or a test. You lock yourself away, you procrastinate, and then suddenly you find yourself up all night. When that’s over and you don’t have anything to do the next couple days, you leave. Mine was not a job where you sat there and put in face time just because you needed to put in face time. You made sure that you did your work when there was work to do. In the White House, it was a little better than the campaign, because I had a bigger team. There were more people writing speeches, so we kind of gave each other a break when we could.

Gate: Do you have a good story about getting called back when you were out with your friends?

Favreau : [Laughs] So I was here in Chicago, and it was like two weeks before the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, and I had been up multiple nights until two or three in the morning, myself, Adam Franklin, Ben Rhodes, trying to write the Jefferson-Jackson speech. Finally we put it away for a while. And we had this speech in South Carolina that was supposed to be a year before actual election day. So we did our latest version of the Jefferson-Jackson speech there, and he gives the speech during the day on Saturday and it’s great, everything’s fine. Then I get a call at 11:30 Saturday night from Axelrod. He said, “Hey, I just talked to the President. He loved the speech today, and he said that’s what he wants the Jefferson-Jackson speech to be, except it is twenty minutes and the J-J speech needs to be ten, so can you cut it down? And he wants it by tomorrow morning.” And I had just cracked open my beer for the night, and I have all these people in my apartment. And so I run out of the house, make a cup of coffee, and I walk down Michigan Avenue, went into my office at 12 or 1 AM and stayed up all night until 10 AM and rewrote the speech.

Gate: What inner qualities can speechwriting give you?

Favreau : One of the qualities that it has taught me most of all is empathy, which is a good quality in life. As a speechwriter you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes, because you need to know what the audience would want to hear; you want to know where they’re coming from and where they are. You’re always trying to meet people where they are. I think that’s a valuable lesson to learn about life, to not judge people right away, to figure out where they’re coming from. It helps you understand the people you’re working with, the people you’re living with. It’s a very valuable tool to have, and the President is very skilled at it, and I think the best speakers and the best leaders often are.

Gate: Do you see yourself ever being a speechwriter for someone else?

Favreau : I don’t. I worked for a candidate and president I could never have dreamed of being so inspiring to me, and such a wonderful boss, and a good man to work for. And now that I’ve done that, putting as much time and sweat and energy, and so much of my life into something like that again just doesn’t seem like it would be worth it to me. If someone comes along, like another Barack Obama, who knows? But for now, there’s so much of politics that I dislike, that I don’t see myself as a political lifer. I see myself as someone who really, truly admires Barack Obama and what he’s trying to do, and I’d do anything he asks me to do. Beyond that, I have very strong views about politics that I’ll continue to share, and it’s going to be hard to shake politics out of my system completely, but putting in the effort and the years with someone else would be tough.

This interview has been edited and condensed for this publication. The featured image above of Jon Favreau speaking with President Obama in the Oval Office can be found at the White House's official website . The image is an Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, taken on January 23, 2012. This third-party content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License and is not copyright protected.

Noah Weiland

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Jon Favreau
Jonathan Kolia Favreau was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, on October 19, 1966, [1] the only child of Madeleine, an elementary school teacher who died of leukemia in 1979, and Charles Favreau, a special education teacher. [2] His mother was Ashkenazi Jewish [3] [4] [5] and his father is a Catholic of Italian and French-Canadian ancestry. [6] [7] [8] Favreau dropped out of Hebrew school to ...
Jon Favreau on His Breakthrough Moment
Jon Favreau, Speechwriter "For the first time, Obama sees it and he's like, 'I actually don't have that many edits'." Published Jan 12, 2016
The 27 Year Old Speechwriter That's the Man Behind the Man: Jon Favreau
By Alice Yoo on December 18, 2008. Hear the name Jon Favreau and you might think of Vince Vauhn's counterpart in the classic movie Swingers. But look a little closer and you'll instead find a 27 year old speechwriter who's words mean much more than yours or mine. As Obama's chief speechwriter he's in charge of crafting some of Obama's most ...
Departing Obama Speechwriter: 'I Leave This Job Actually More ...
In 2009, at age 27, Jon Favreau became the second-youngest chief presidential speechwriter in White House history. Despite his youth, he seemed to have the utter trust of President Obama, who ...
An inside look at the White House with speechwriter Jon Favreau
last updated 8 January 2015. In the latest episode of Political Wire 's podcast, we chatted with Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for President Obama, about the Democrats' messaging strategy on ...
Jon Favreau: The voice behind a generational voice
Jon Favreau left the White House earlier this year after serving as President Obama's Director of Speechwriting since 2005. A member of the President's closest group of advisors on the Hill and in the White House, Favreau was a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics last spring, and is currently building his own communications strategy firm, Fenway Strategies, in Washington.
Who is Jon Lovett? Former Obama speechwriter among 'Survivor' 47 cast
Lovett, 42, previously worked as a speechwriter under former President Barack Obama and now co-hosts "Pod Save America" alongside other former aides Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor.
Jon Favreau '03, Former Obama Speechwriter, Talks 2020 Presidential
During a single hour-long conversation, former director of speechwriting for President Obama and current podcast celebrity Jon Favreau "03 covered myriad topics: the strengths and failures of the new Democratic House majority, 2020 presidential candidates, his tense first encounter with Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his gratitude for Holy Cross.


		Name	Term	Office	Name	Term
		2009–10			2009–10
		2010–11			2010–13
		2011–12			2013–17
		2012–13			2009–10
		2013–17			2010–13
for Policy		2009–11			2013–14
		2011–13			2015–17
		2013–15	Dep. National Security Advisor, Homeland Security		2009–13
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations		2009–11			2013–17
		2011–14	Dep. National Security Advisor, Iraq and Afghanistan	†	2009–13
		2014–17	Dep. National Security Advisor, Strategic Comm.		2009–17
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning		2012–14	Dep. National Security Advisor, Chief of Staff		2009
		2014–17			2009–10
		2011–13			2011–12
		2014–15			2009
		2009–11			2009
		2011–13			2009–13
		2013–15			2013–15
		2015–17			2015–17
Senior Advisor to the President		2009–10	Deputy White House Communications Director		2009–11
		2015–17			2011–14
Senior Advisor to the President and		2009–17		Amy Brundage	2014–16
Assistant to the President for				Liz Allen	2016–17
Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs					2009–11
Director,		2009–11			2011–13
	Jon Carson	2011–13			2013–17
	Paulette L. Aniskoff	2013–17	Deputy Press Secretary		2009–11
Director,		2009–12			2011–13
	David Agnew	2012–14			2014–17
		2014–17	Director of Special Projects		2010–11
Director,		2009–10	Director, Speechwriting		2009–13
		2011–14			2013–17
		2014–17	Director, Digital Strategy		2009–13
Chair,		2009–10	Chief Digital Officer	Jason Goldman	2015–17
		2010–13	Director, Legislative Affairs		2009–11
		2013–17			2011–13
Chair,		2009–11			2013–16
Chair,		2011–13		Miguel Rodriguez	2016
Director,		2009–12		Amy Rosenbaum	2016–17
		2012–17	Director, Political Affairs		2009–11
Director,		2009–13			2011–16
		2013–17	Director, Presidential Personnel	Nancy Hogan	2009–13
Director,		2009–11		Johnathan D. McBride	2013–14
Director,		2009–11		Valerie E. Green	2014–15
	Grant N. Colfax	2011–13		Rodin A. Mehrbani	2016–17
	Douglas M. Brooks	2013–17			2009–11
Director,		2009–10			2011–12
	Racquel S. Russell	2010–14		Douglas Kramer	2012–13
	Roy Austin Jr.	2014–17		Joani Walsh	2014–17
Director,		2009–11	Director, Management and Administration	Bradley J. Kiley	2009–11
		2009–10		Katy A. Kale	2011–15
		2010–11			2015–17
		2011–14	Director, Scheduling and Advance		2009–11
		2014–17		Danielle Crutchfield	2011–14
		2009–13		Chase Cushman	2014–17
		2013–14	Director, White House Information Technology		2015–17
		2014–17	Director,	Cameron Moody	2009–11
Personal Aide to the President		2009–11		Beth Jones	2011–15
		2011–12		Cathy Solomon	2015–17
	Marvin D. Nicholson	2012–17	Director,		2009–17
Director,		2012–17			2009–12
		2009–11			2012–14
		2011–14			2014–17
		2014–17	Director,		2009–10
		2009			2010–12
		2009–11			2012–13
		2011–17			2013–14
		2009–10			2014
		2010–11			2014–17
		2011–15			2009–11
		2015–17			2011–14
		2009–11		Tony Scott	2015–17
		2011–13			2009–13
		2013–17			2013–17
	†	2009–11	Director,		2009–14
		2011–17			2014–17
Director,	George Mulligan	2009–13	Chair,		2009–14
	Emmett Beliveau	2013–15		Michael Boots	2014–15
	Dabney Kern	2016–17			2015–17

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