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Article snippet: It was early November, the day before Virginia’s elections, and the Democratic cavalry — in the form of four podcast hosts crammed into a Lyft — was coming to the aid of Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. “Do you want to kick things off with something light and funny?” Jon Favreau asked Jon Lovett as their ride — an S.U.V. outfitted with neon lights and a disco ball that were a bit discombobulating before 9 o’clock in the morning — took them to a Richmond campaign office. They’d be rallying volunteers canvassing for Northam, the Democratic candidate for governor, who was at the time commanding a perilously narrow lead in the polls. “I want to go toward the end for some earnestness,” Favreau said. “You should do something real message-y,” Tommy Vietor proposed. “I’m expecting the ‘race speech’ for G.O.T.V.,” Dan Pfeiffer chimed in. It was a joke from the podcasters’ past lives. As Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter for eight years, Favreau had a hand in some of his most memorable oratory — none more so than the 2008 campaign speech about race that followed questions about Obama’s relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Whenever a knotty issue arose in Obama’s White House, Pfeiffer and Vietor, who worked in the communications department, and Lovett, a fellow speechwriter, would taunt Favreau: “We need a ‘race speech’ for Simpson-Bowles,” or: “Write a ‘race speech’ for the BP oil spill.” The night before, at the National, an 800-seat theater in Richmond, Favreau and his co-... Link to the full article to read more