Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

‘I wouldn’t have met Barack Obama!’
Jamie Brockbank with President
(then Senator) Obama
The story goes back to summer 2006, when I was one of
10 UK students taking part in the Capitol Hill internship
programme. As an intern placed in the Republican office of
the House Committee for Education and the Workforce, I
soon realised that my lack of formal tasks combined with a
security pass giving me unfettered access to the Capitol
Complex, meant I had an unprecedented opportunity to
seek out the movers and shakers of this intensely political
city. Thanks to my sympathetic boss - the Director of
Communications and a former intern himself - I seized the
chance, for instance, to listen to Committee hearings of
interest, gate crash a press conference that (then Senator)
Hillary Clinton was giving about high gasoline prices or
scour fringe lobbying events for free snacks and drinks.
Over a beer one night, fellow ESU intern Jonathan Bailey
mentioned he’d heard that Senators Durbin and Obama
ran a weekly Thursday morning breakfast for Illinois
constituents passing through DC. While the older Dick
Durbin was the Senate Minority Whip, both Jon and I were
far more interested in hearing his much-vaunted younger
colleague after his stirring “One America” speech at the
Democratic National Convention.
Jon and I managed to kick our 21-year old student sleeping
habits and haul ourselves out of bed to join the queue at the
grand Senate meeting room. The great and good of
Lincoln’s state seemed to have turned out in force. Aided by
Jon’s stellar Democrat credentials as a Kennedy intern (and
my concealment that I was in fact interning for the ‘Dark
Side’ of the party of Bush and co.), we were treated as VIP
guests, ushered to our seats and revived from our slumbers
with bagels and coffee.
The Senators then duly bounded in, giving pumping
handshakes to seemingly long-lost friends (or rather,
prospective voters) in the crowd. They launched into their
pitch about how marvellous the good folk of Illinois were
and how honoured they were to represent them as Senators.
While Durbin was an impressive politician in his own right,
it was clear that it was Obama who possessed star quality.
He showed an ability to mix a personable, folksy charm –
which belied some media portrayals today of his supposed
aloofness - with an intellectual drive and enticing vision of
change. He combined these qualities when he gave a
rallying cry for the importance of America ending its
dependence on foreign oil from often, despotic regimes by
promoting the use of ethanol fuels instead; conveniently
produced by corn-belt states like Illinois. It was an
impressive display of Obama’s ability to blend high
principles with populism.
And as an audience, we warmed to him and there were
shouts of “We Love you Barack!” and even of “Barack for
President”, although the latter was chuckled at openly as
anyone who knew anything about American politics knew
that a black man would never get elected President... but
while this barrier has been smashed, Obama’s vision of an
ethanol-fuelled America has fared less well in the face of
economic obstacles; rather like his entire Presidency.
With the talking out of the way, the all- important photo
shoot could begin, orchestrated with military precision.
While Jon’s audacious attempt to invite Obama to speak at
his alma mater, the Oxford Union, was politely turned
down, we both got the chance to press the flesh and be
snapped for souvenir photos of a remarkable morning.
During the November 2008 Presidential election, in an act
of solidarity (or rather shameless self-publicity), I posted this
very photograph as my Facebook profile picture. A friend
posted on my wall to express mock envy, before suggesting I
had been spending too much time at Madame Tussauds.
So, it was rather satisfying to remind her that there is no
such thing in Washington DC and to then see her
astonishment as the penny finally dropped. If it hadn’t have
been for the ESU granting me a place on the Capitol Hill
internship programme, then her scepticism would have
been vindicated. I would have had to settle for the waxwork
instead, which would be a far less interesting story to tell my
grandchildren one day.
Jamie Brockbank - Capitol Hill 2006
DIALOGUE 41