This may be patently obvious to all of you who just finished reading, but I have never written a book before. I think the longest memo I wrote in the White House was five pages, and most of my written communications for the last few years have been around 140 characters. I never could have finished this book without the help of a lot of very patient and encouraging people. More important, I would never have been in a position to write this or any book were it not for so many people who gave me opportunity after opportunity. I have been so fortunate in my life and career because of the people I have met, worked with, and worked for.
There are too many people to thank individually, but here goes in no real order (if I’ve forgotten anyone, I will fix it in the paperback edition):
Sean Desmond, Rachel Kambury, and everyone at Twelve: Thank you for being so supportive of a first-time author who knew just enough to be dangerous and for talking me off the ledge multiple times. I couldn’t have asked for a better (or nicer) editor.
David Larabell and CAA: Thank you for helping me take the vaguest notion of a book to an actual proposal to a new proposal after the election upended everything and, finally, to a book. You believed in this book even when I doubted it.
Howli: None this could have happened without your ideas, encouragement, patience, and top-notch editing. As with everything else in our life, you made this book better, brighter, and more fun. I love you and am so excited for what comes next (LD).
Gary and Lear Pfeiffer: Thank you for a) allowing me to believe that I could do anything, b) teaching me and Bob about our responsibility to something bigger than ourselves, and c) putting up with an outspoken, opinionated son who never knew what he didn’t know (still may not), but letting him figure that out on his own.
Robert Pfeiffer: Thank for being the sort of writer and person I aspire to be.
Barbara and Howdy Ledbetter: Thank you for Howli and so much more.
Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, and Crooked Media: When I left the White House, the two things I thought I would miss most were working with my friends and talking politics with smart, funny people. Thank you for solving that problem and for having the courage and insight to start Crooked Media, which will eventually save America from a dystopian future where we are ruled by Sean Hannity’s brain in a jar.
Alyssa Mastromonaco: It is hard to believe that we have already been friends for a decade and simultaneously hard to believe that we have only been friends for decade. No one could ask for a better, funnier, or more supportive friend. I would not have survived (figuratively and literally) without you. Thanks, buddy.
Pete Rouse: You supported me, mentored me, and hired me even after I helped cost you your job by losing Tom Daschle’s race (worked out pretty well for us, though). Everyone should have a boss like you once in their lives. I was fortunate to work for you many times.
David Plouffe and David Axelrod: You guys wrote the book (literally) on how to win a campaign. Without your smarts and savvy, Obama doesn’t become president, I don’t get to work in the White House, and America is totally screwed (OK, that may have happened anyway).
Steve Hildebrand: The 2002 Johnson campaign taught me so much about politics and life and put me on the path to meet Barack Obama. I can’t thank you enough for your friendship and support and for challenging me to do crazy things like eat Mexican food in South Dakota and get crazy words printed in the newspaper.
Anita Dunn: Thank you for hiring me repeatedly and for very generously helping me succeed you. You also saved me from law school after finding me a job at the darkest moment of my career.
Robert Gibbs: For teaching me that the best staff are the one’s willing to have the hard conversations with the boss and for never peeing on my leg and telling me it’s raining (my favorite Gibbs-ism).
Valerie Jarrett and Anita Breckenridge: Thank you for being great travel buddies and good friends and for always representing the original Obama crew.
Denis McDonough: Hats off. I should have known when you showed up in South Dakota in 2002 and promptly organized a massive GOTV operation before unpacking your car that you would eventually be running the world.
Cody Keenan and Ben Rhodes: Thank you for being great friends who always made me laugh even on the toughest days at the White House. No thank you for being such intimidatingly good writers.
Jennifer Palmieri and Jen Psaki: I couldn’t have asked for smarter, nicer partners. Thank you for being great colleagues and always pushing me to look at things from a different perspective.
Clay Dumas, Lauren Thorbjornsen, and Dawn Selak: Thank you for putting up with a very particular often grumpy and demanding boss who never said thank you enough. You all deserve a medal.
Obama Communications Team: I am biased, but the communications team was always the best, smartest, funniest, and tightest-knit group in Obama-land. You fundamentally changed how communications was done and were a blast to work with every single day. You will rule the world one day (presuming there is still a world post 2020).
Chad Griffin: Thank you for showing me that a career in politics was possible, helping me get started, and being a great friend for a very long time.
Stephen Liset, Zach Korman, and Jim Steckart: For never letting me take myself too seriously, standing by me when I went missing for a few years, and always being down for a game of Buck Up.
Bill Simmons, Joe Fuentes, Tate Frazier, and everyone at the Ringer: Thank you for teaching us how to pod and taking a risk on Keepin’ it 1600 and for all the hours I will never get back from consuming all of your pods, mailbags, and other great content.
Vice President Biden: Thank for showing me you can be a great politician and a good person at the same time and for all the Delaware references in White House meetings.
President Obama: More than a decade ago, I packed up my life to move to Chicago on a whim after meeting with you for an hour. I put all of my faith and hope in you, and never once did I regret that decision. Thank you for the privilege and honor of a lifetime, for all the great advice, and for introducing me to my wife. Also, apologies for Georgetown repeatedly blowing up your bracket.
Friends of the Pod: The best part of the entire Pod Save America experience is all of the people we have met across the country who are engaging in politics at every level. You give me hope about the future of the country (especially when you are wearing merch).
Obama Family: A few weeks before the election in 2008, Dan Balz of the Washington Post told me that if Barack Obama won, I would forever be known as an “Obama person.” At the time, I didn’t appreciate the significance of that designation. I do now. I couldn’t be prouder to be known as an “Obama person” and to be connected to so many smart, good people who did so much to make America a better place. Barack Obama may be out of the White House, but we will always be “Obama people” and you will always be my family. Two thousand eight was just the beginning.
In loving memory of Brandon Lepow.