Obama’s speech on race

2:20 PMThere was a time when it was believed that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would torpedo then-Sen. Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.

Now, FiveThirtyEight gives a week in 2008 the June 17th, 1994-style treatment in a podcast called “Inside The Five-Day Stretch When Obama Found His Voice On Race,” delving into what happened when the controversial pastor’s old sermons hit the media and his campaign team was forced to deal with it. In retrospect, some of the questions Obama dealt with felt more like a court deposition than an interview. Obama defended Wright as a churchgoer and the man who married him and Michelle.

He couldn’t disavow Wright entirely, so he did what he knew best. He made a speech, which he wrote himself. Without the usual trappings of politics. He bet on himself to simply nail it. This deep dive featuring many of the characters involved — David Axelrod (Obama’s chief campaign strategist), Jon Favreau (speechwriter), Valerie Jarrett (White House senior adviser) to name a few — is a detailed look into what happened on the ground in those moments.

Presented in chronological order of news coverage, with commentary from various characters close to the story, this project offers analysis and chalk talk of the moment that turned his campaign around. The show continues to discuss Obama’s growth and public progression as a person willing to discuss race as a public figure, and his blackness in itself.

The rest is history.