In the spring of 2004, Jan Schakowsky, a Democratic congresswoman from Evanston, Illinois, told me a funny story about startling President Bush during a visit to the White House. She was wearing a big, blue “OBAMA†button. This was in the early days of Barack Obama’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Bush “jumped back, almost literally,†Schakowsky said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’â€
– from the New Yorker
Boy, was she ever right about that.
I was totally thinking about that story earlier this week! How prophetic.