Samuel Graham-Felsen is an American blogger and journalist who was the blog director of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008. [1]
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Graham-Felsen grew up in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Boston public schools, including the William Monroe Trotter school and Boston Latin School. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2004 with a degree in social studies. He was a writer and columnist for The Harvard Crimson , the daily student newspaper of the university. [2]
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of 4.4 square miles (11 km2) in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Founded by Boston Puritans seeking farm land to the south, it was originally part of the town of Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbury as a part of the new town of West Roxbury in 1851, and became part of Boston when West Roxbury was annexed in 1874. In the 19th century, Jamaica Plain became one of the first streetcar suburbs in America and home to a significant portion of Boston's Emerald Necklace of parks, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States, as well as the 21st most populous city in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 694,583 in 2018, making it also the most populous city in New England. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States.
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in America and the first public school in the United States. The Public Latin School was a bastion for educating the sons of the Boston "Brahmin" elite, resulting in the school claiming many prominent New Englanders as alumni. Its curriculum follows that of the 18th century Latin school movement, which holds the classics to be the basis of an educated mind. Four years of Latin are mandatory for all pupils who enter the school in the 7th grade, three years for those who enter in the 9th.
From 2004 to 2007, he worked for The Nation magazine, covering youth politics. He also produced videos for Current TV, filing reports from France, Cambodia, and Pakistan. [3] [4]
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, covering progressive political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that closed in 1865, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Now that the specific, urgent problem of slavery had been ended, one could proceed to a broader topic, The Nation. An important collabator of the new magazine was its Literary Editor Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of William. He had at his disposal his father's vast network of contacts.
Current TV was an American television channel from August 1, 2005 to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a smaller stake.
From 2008 to 2009 he was content director at Blue State Digital, a Washington, D.C.-based Internet strategy and technology firm. He is currently a featured speaker for the American Program Bureau and travels worldwide covering his experience with the Obama campaign and other new media campaigns. [5]
Blue State Digital is a digital strategy and technology firm that specializes in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, and constituency development. It was founded by former staffers of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign and provided digital strategy and technology services for the 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaigns. The company is led by the one remaining co-founder, Joe Rospars (CEO). Co-founder Jascha Franklin-Hodge left in July 2014 to become the Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston.
His debut, coming-of-age novel, Green, was published in January, 2018, by Random House. A tale of growing up in Boston as one of few white students in a predominantly Black and Hispanic middle school, his book received praise from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the New Yorker, which called it,“A coming-of-age tale of uncommon sweetness and feeling.”
Graham-Felsen was a member of the presidential campaign staff of Barack Obama in 2008. As the blog director of the New Media committee, he wrote for and oversaw BarackObama.com/blog, worked with key national and state bloggers to promote the campaign's message, helped direct the campaign's online rapid response operation, and produced and collaborated on dozens of online videos for the campaign. [6]
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, often known by his username and former military nickname "Kos", is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, a blog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party politics in the United States. He co-founded SB Nation, a collection of sports blogs, which is now a part of Vox Media.
Samantha Jane Power is an Irish-American academic, author, and diplomat who served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Aneesh Raman is Senior Advisor on Economic Strategy and External Affairs to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to this appointment, Raman spent five years in the tech industry, most recently as Head of Economic and Social Impact Policy at Facebook. Raman previously held a number of positions in the Obama Administrarion, including as a speechwriter to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, making him the country's first Indian-American Presidential Speechwriter. Raman details his experience as President Obama's speechwriter in a chapter in West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House.
This article lists the endorsements made by members of the 110th United States Congress for candidates for their party's nominations in the 2008 United States presidential election. All of the Democratic members of Congress are also superdelegates to their party's presidential nominating convention, except for those from Florida and Michigan. For further details of superdelegates and their voting intentions see List of Democratic Party superdelegates, 2008. This page lists congressional endorsements, which are distinct from superdelegates' intentions to vote.
Nedra J. Pickler is an American national political journalist employed by the Associated Press (AP) since 2000.
Jeffrey B. Liebman is an American economist who served as the executive associate director and chief economist and then as the acting deputy director for policy of the Office of Management and Budget within the Obama Administration. During the 2008 Presidential Campaign he served as a top economic advisor to the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) was a political lobbying organization that advocated within the Democratic Party for viewpoints aligned with the American Jewish community and in support of the state of Israel, and within the political process generally, between 1990 and about 2016.
Robert Lane Gibbs is an American communication expert who is the executive vice president and global chief communications officer of McDonald's. He served as the twenty-fifth White House Press Secretary from 2009 to 2011.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, was announced on February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. After winning a majority of delegates in the Democratic primaries of 2008, on August 23, leading up to the convention, the campaign announced that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be the vice presidential nominee. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, Barack Obama was formally selected as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 2008. He was the first African American in history to be nominated on a major party ticket.
Jason Furman is an American economist and professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On June 10, 2013, Furman was named by President Barack Obama as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Previously, since January 28, 2009, Furman had served as the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, which followed his role as an advisor to candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. Furman's research and policy focus includes the subjects of taxes, health care, macroeconomic policy, competition and inequality, technology policy, and the U.S. Social Security program.
David Weinberger is an American technologist, professional speaker, and commentator, probably best known as co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Weinberger's work focuses on how the Internet is changing human relationships, communication, knowledge and society.
Macon Phillips is a U.S. public servant who served as the Coordinator of the United States Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs from 2013 to 2017. He reported to Rick Stengel, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Phillips is the former White House Director of New Media, in which capacity he had oversight responsibility for WhiteHouse.gov. Phillips' work on WhiteHouse.gov closely coordinated with internet operations at the Democratic National Committee, which has responsibility for administration of the BarackObama.com domain and website. At precisely 12:00 p.m.ET during the inauguration of Barack Obama, Phillips oversaw the conversion of Whitehouse.gov, the official website of the President of the United States. At 12:01 p.m., he posted the site's first blog entry, titled: Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.
Matthew Winthrop Barzun is a former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He is a business executive who is known for his work with CNET Networks and for his volunteer work on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 2009 to 2011. He was selected by President Barack Obama as National Finance Chair for the president's 2012 re-election campaign.
Jesse Lee was named the White House Director of Progressive Media & Online Response on May 23, 2011. This is a newly created position to help maintain the President's online presence as he prepares for his 2012 Presidential reelection bid. The duties of this position, dealing with negative or factually incorrect stories about the President, was formerly handled by the Democratic National Committee's rapid response team. Lee’s first tweet about his new position included a picture of The Terminator.
Joshua Ryan Henry Earnest is an American public affairs professional and former campaign worker and White House aide who served as the twenty-seventh White House press secretary under President Barack Obama, from 2014 to 2017. He succeeded Jay Carney as Obama's press secretary, in 2014, and was succeeded by President Donald Trump's first Presidential press secretary, Sean Spicer. He currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for United Airlines.
Joe Rospars is one of the founders of Blue State Digital. Rospars was the New Media Director of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and for both the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Rospars also was Barack Obama's principal digital strategist and adviser. He managed the digital integration of fundraising, communications, and mobilization of grassroots effort. Prior to Obama's campaign, he worked with Governor Howard Dean at the Democratic National Committee, Dean's campaign for party chairman, and at Democracy for America, and on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Rospers has a bachelor's degree in political science from the George Washington University.
Ben Self is the current chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, having been elected in November 2017. He was a co-founder for digital strategy firm Blue State Digital and is co-founder of West Sixth Brewery in Lexington, Kentucky.
Tom Cochran is a former Obama Administration appointee, having served both in the White House and Department of State between 2011 and 2016. He is a partner and the Chief Growth Officer at 720 Strategies, as well as a keynote speaker, writer, and adjunct professor at American University.