Samantha Power remembers Barack Obama’s 2008 election win

Ambassador Samantha Power remembers Barack Obama’s election night

Eleven years ago this week, I was sitting on a plastic chair in a white tent in Grant Park, Chicago. My husband of four months, Cass, was beside me, and Barack Obama’s family, friends, advisers and donors – plus a good helping of Democrats and celebrities – were all milling around. Outside, 240,000 people had gathered, too. We were there to watch the returns from the 2008 presidential election being broadcast on a huge TV screen.

When the moment came and a CNN presenter made Obama’s victory official, people went crazy. Everybody around us seemed to be crying. Obama had done what nobody thought possible. ‘This is something, huh?’ he said, hugging me across the rope barrier later. It really was: he had made history.

I first heard of Barack Obama during his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I almost missed it – a massive sports fan, I was flitting between convention coverage and a Red Sox baseball game. But

from the moment Obama, a candidate for Senate, took to the stage, I was transfixed.

Not long after Obama won his Senate seat, I sent him a copy of my book, ‘A Problem from Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide.

A couple of months later, I received an email from his scheduler asking if I would be able to join him for dinner. My first impression of the man, just a few months into his new job, was that he was at once regal and relaxed. We talked about my background: he listened and probed, rarely mentioning himself unless I pressed.

By the end of the meal, I knew that I wanted to work for him. Obama had an optimism and vision I hadn’t encountered before, and I felt energised by the prospect of being a part of his team. Later, as we left the restaurant, I plucked up the courage to offer my services. He said he’d love to bring me ‘on board’.

It’s funny thinking back to election night and that first encounter over dinner when I see this photograph. Here, Obama and I are at the White House in 2013, roughly five months into his second term as president. Susan Rice is walking between us, while Tom Donilon is alongside. Obama had just announced that I would succeed Susan as US ambassador to the United Nations, and that Susan would assume Tom’s position as national security adviser.

It was another day of great hope and promise. Look at our faces here: we’re upbeat, we’re looking forward, we’re together. But each of us is also deep in our own thoughts. We had work to do.

— Interview by Guy Kelly The Education of an Idealist, by Samantha Power (William Collins, £20), is out now. UK tour event details at samanthapower.com/events

L-R Tom Donilon, Barack Obama, Susan Rice and Samantha Power early in Obama’s second term, 2013