“By the People: The Election of Barack Obama” HBO Document on Tuesday, November 3.

On Tuesday, November 3, HBO will air the documentary “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama.” According to the website, filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams began to roll cameras on young Senator Obama nearly a year before he announced his candidacy for the presidency.

Inspired by his oratorical skills and star appeal at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Rice set out to film his political career in 2006. She was joined by Sams as a co-director and actor Edward Norton agreed to produce it. After Norton approached Obama’s team with the idea, the senator agreed to grant the filmmakers what turned out to be unprecedented and exclusive access.

"Initially, it wasn't even about a presidential campaign; the idea was simply to examine the political experience of a promising young politician of our generation," said Norton.

BY THE PEOPLE tracks Obama's halting progress from long-odds candidate to front-runner in the 2008 presidential race. It's a roller-coaster ride that includes all the victories and upsets that were followed by millions in the media, seen from within the Obama campaign: from thrilling wins and disappointing losses in key states, to controversies stemming from Obama's associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; from the high of receiving his party's nomination over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to the low of losing his beloved grandmother the day before his final victory over Sen. John McCain on Election Day.`

The documentary culminates culminates in the general election of November 2008, showing the Obama team glued to TV screens at campaign headquarters in Chicago, waiting with baited breath as results come in. Cheers fill the office as Ohio, then Iowa, go to Obama. His top speechwriter types on a laptop while talking to Obama on a cell phone, putting the finishing touches on an acceptance speech. Then, after the polls close in western states, news of Obama's victory finally breaks amid cheers and tears of joy, and the film follows David Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe in elevators, along hallways and past security checkpoints as they make their way to Obama's hotel room. History has been made. (HBO)

Cheri is a freelance writer living in Southern California.  She has two grown children and is the proud grandmother of three.

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at www.theobamawatch.gather.com.