New York Magazine has an oral history-style interview with longtime Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, about how he caught on with then-Senator Obama, who initially didn’t want a speechwriter at all.
Favreau knew he was doing some good “the first time I saw him after we won Iowa, he came out of his hotel room after editing that speech, and he just looked at me and he goes, ‘Speeches, man.’ And he gave me a big hug and I was like, All right.”