The 17 Minutes That Launched a Political Star

(By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)   |   Buy Photo

Kerry's campaign staff had encouraged Obama to highlight his "fresh voice" in the speech. So, as he wrote a first draft, Obama used his life story to cast himself as the ultimate Washington outsider -- the son of a goat herder and the grandson of a domestic servant, he wrote, "a skinny kid with a funny name."

Said Cauley: "He wanted everything to be in his own words. He guarded it. He made it clear from the beginning that this speech was going to be his baby."

Obama had already won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, and he did not yet know which Republican would challenge him in the general election. Left with unexpected free time, he buried himself in preparation for the speech. He watched videos and read transcripts of convention keynotes over the past 30 years. Between legislative sessions, he tested his material on other lawmakers, engaging them in big-picture conversations about democracy.

"Barack would talk about all these deep things without really letting you know why he wanted to talk about it," said Terry Link, an Illinois state senator who is a close friend of Obama's. "Then, when I saw the speech, it was like, 'Oh, he was trying this out on me, and this out on me.' He was constantly practicing all of it."

Obama finished a first draft that took 25 minutes to deliver, and convention officials asked him to cut it in half. While he lobbied for more time -- "You can't do a keynote in 12 minutes," Cauley said -- Obama and his staff worked to truncate sentences and eliminate superfluous words. They trimmed the speech to 17 minutes, which convention officials decided they could accommodate.

Back in Chicago, Obama shifted his focus to presentation. The convention venue forced a unique oratory challenge, advisers warned. Obama would have to address two crowds at once, each demanding a different affect: the frenzied fans in the arena who wanted a politician to fuel their excitement, and the millions watching from home, oblivious to the chaos in Boston, who wanted to be thoughtfully engaged.

Obama, like all convention speakers, would also use a teleprompter, a first for him. His advisers leased a machine and set up a practice lectern in consultant David Axelrod's Chicago office. Before Obama left for Boston, he practiced the speech more than 15 times.

On his first day in Boston, Obama rehearsed in the underbelly of the Fleet Center with a speech coach. He sounded slightly tense and struggled occasionally with the teleprompter, those watching said. The next day, Obama thought he improved only marginally during a second rehearsal, usually the final practice for a keynote speaker.

In the 40 hours before his Tuesday night speech, Obama granted more than 15 interviews, including several broadcast live on television. To Obama and his advisers, it seemed that many of the questions hinted at the same issue: Who, exactly, are you? And why, exactly, are you delivering a keynote speech?

In an attempt to amplify Obama's introduction to the national audience, his staff launched an all-out publicity blitz. Two college students drove a truck from Chicago carrying 5,000 Obama campaign signs, and they distributed them at the Fleet Center. Internet technicians added an extra server to Obama's Web site, anticipating a surge in traffic. Cauley planned an after-party at a Boston nightclub, handing out fliers to "pretty much anybody we could find, because I swear we were absolutely terrified that nobody was going to come," he said.

The day before his speech, Obama sought out Kevin Lampe, an old friend working at the convention, and asked for two final favors. He wanted his wife, Michelle, to accompany him backstage, even though regular rules excluded family from entering that area. And he wanted a third rehearsal, even if that meant adjusting his schedule.

"I think he understood how big this could be," Lampe said.