Barack Obama: I first heard of him after the 2004 DNC, when my grandmother accurately predicted he would be the next president. I didn’t think of him again until 2007.
Hillary Clinton: I can’t recall exactly when, but I remember being aware of her and her presidential ambitions as early as 2003.
Joe Biden: The first Democratic 2008 debate. I also heard of Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Kucinich. My grandpa (who identified as a revolutionary socialist and was a militant atheist) got into a debate that resulted in my mom getting on him for swearing, to which he yelled “God damnit, he talks like he’s 35 f[INKS]ing years old!” Oh, the memories….
George W. Bush: Sometime after he was elected in 2000. I remember my parents voting for him that year, but my first visual memory of him was in the weeks following 9/11.
Dick Cheney: My grandmother was babysitting me on the night of “Mission Accomplished.” I remember his arrival shortly before Bush flew in more distinctly. I do remember discussing with my grandma how a plane can land on a ship.
Mitt Romney: I first heard his name on the Today Show the morning after he kicked off his first campaign in 2007.
John McCain: Saw him in the 2008 debates, and he was my third favorite candidate throughout the cycle.
Rudy Giuliani: 9/11. He was on TV a lot before that, but I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he was running for President until my grandma and her friends picked me up from school to see him, where I shook his hand.
Ron Paul: I first discovered him in the 2008 debates and hated him with a passion at the time for being a “liberal.”
Sarah Palin: I knew McCain was announcing his VP choice that afternoon, but I didn’t find out until my mom picked me up from school. I was in sixth grade at the time, and thought that for some reason Kathleen Sebelius was a Republican and was hoping McCain would have picked her. When I heard about Palin that day, I kept thinking her name was "Sarah Plain" and called her that for weeks.
Michelle Bachmann: A rally in 2009 with Palin; I thought she was trying way too hard to be Palin 2.0, down to the way she dressed.
Newt Gingrich: My grandmother wanted him to run in 2008 and only described him as a “historian.” I didn’t know his full history until the 2010 midterms began to heat up, bringing his name back into the news.
Rick Santorum: I remember him being a frequent TV presence in 2005, but I didn’t really think of him again until 2010 when they began to talk him up for President.
Feel free to add your own names and memories to this rather dumb list
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