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Separating history from hype | Dayo Olopade

Source: The Guardian

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

Looking back at Obama's election one year on, it's clear that the campaign controveries obscured the issues that really matter

By The People, a new documentary about Barack Obama's campaign for president now airing on HBO, gets up close. We see Obama sitting on a curb, alone, moments before taking the podium at an event. We see Michelle Obama at home in Chicago with her children. We see the future president riding in a convertible, waving – and we wonder: where is the secret service? The cameras are close enough, in fact, to see the single tear of the 2008 campaign course down Obama's face.

The film, shot over the course of two years by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, sketches the basic contours of the 2008 campaign, with a particular soft spot for Obama. Key aides like David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs give candid interviews, and many journalists give their real-time gloss on events.

One confessional in particular stands out for its comedy and its tragedy. The film's first interview with Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau seats him, theatrically, near a photo of Ted Sorens

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