Obama's Fired Up, Ready to Go Story from the 2008 Campaign

A lot of you won't remember this, but when I ran for the

presidency in '08,

the truth is is that not a lot of people gave me a chance.

You know, I, I was a skinny guy with a funny name.

When we started the campaign, the odds weren't for us,

and we had a lot of states to cover, and I had never run a national

campaign.

And so we had to try to get any support we could,

any endorsements we could. So we, I, I fly down to North

Carolina, South Carolina, South Carolina.

I go down to South Carolina for some state legislator's banquet or

something, and I'm sitting next to this state

legislator,

and she hasn't made an endorsement yet.

And I ask her for the endorsement. That's what you do

when you're kind of trying to

get support. And, uh, she says, "You know what, Obama, I like you.

You're a little young, a little green behind the ears,

but I like you.

I will endorse you if you come to my hometown

of Greenwood, South Carolina." I go in,

just fall out.

Alarm goes off,

and I feel terrible. I am exhausted, think I'm coming down with a cold.

I open up the curtains. It's pouring down rain outside.

Pouring down rain, horrible day.

I, I, I make myself some coffee, and I, I

get the newspaper outside my door and open it up.

There's a bad story about me in The New York Times.

I get dressed, shave, walk out just kinda still

groggy, still staggering. My umbrella blows open.

That ever happen to you?

As I'm walking out, and I get soaked, soaked.

I'm just

soaked.

I get in the car. I say, "All right, how long is it gonna take to Greenwood?"

"An

hour and a half."

An hour and a half.

So we're driving, and we're driving, and we're driving.

Doesn't seem like we're going anywhere. Sheets of rain are pouring down.

So I'm about to make my pitch. I'm trying to muster myself up.

Let me make the best of this. I'm gonna do it quick,

and then I'm gonna get out of

here.

And suddenly I hear this voice from the back just

shout, "Fired up."

Ready to go.

And everybody in the room says, "Fired up."

Ready to go.

And I say, "Ready to g-", and then I hear the voice say,

"Ready to go," and

everybody in the room says, "Ready to go," and I don't know what's

going on.

I think, "These people are crazy.

Maybe I shouldn't have come here."

And then I look in the back of the room,

and there's this middle-aged woman,

and she's dressed like she just came from church.

She's got a big church hat.

And she got, I think, a gold tooth.

Turns out she is,

holds a position in the local NAACP office

and also, I'm not kidding you, is a

private detective. This is a true story.

She's like a, uh, she's

she's like a private eye.

Although y-

i- it's hard to think that you wouldn't see her coming.

She's very colorful. And she's grinning at me.

And apparently she is known

wherever she goes

by saying

this chant, "Fired up," and everybody knows her, so they know

that when she says,

"Fired up," they've gotta say, "Fired up," and when she says,

"Ready to go,"

everybody's gotta say, "Ready to go," and this is what she does.

Every meeting she goes to, she does this thing, which is kinda

strange.

So the thing is, though, she keeps on doing it.

And everybody keeps on s- she says, "Fired up," and they say, "Fired up," and

"Ready to go," "Ready to go," but the interesting thing is

after a while

I'm starting to get kinda fired up.

Yeah.

I'm st- I'm s- I'm now, I'm starting to-

I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to go.

And all those, all those negative thoughts

and all those bad memories start kinda

drifting away.

And we have a great meeting with these 20 people.

And they all say, "We're gonna support you,

and we're gonna go out there and work."

And even after we left Greenwood, the rest of the day, all the

campaigning, when I saw my staff, I said, "Are you fired up?" They say, "I'm fired

up, boss."

"Are you ready to go?"

Ready.

"I, I'm, I'm ready to go."

And

it just goes to show you

how one voice can change a room.

And, and if,

and if it can change a room, it can change a city.

And if it can change a city, it can change a state.

And if it can change a state, it can change a nation.

And if it can change a nation,

it can change the world.

So I just have one question for you, New Hampshire.

Are you fired up?

Fired up.

Ready to go?

Ready to go.

Fired up?

Fired up.

Ready to go?

Ready to go.

Fired up?

Fired up.

Ready to go?

Ready to go.

Let's go finish what we started. Let's elect Hillary Clinton.

Let's elect Maggie Hassan. I love you, New Hampshire. God bless you.

God bless the United States of America.