Jonathan Edward Favreau (born June 2, 1981) is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Favreau attended the College of the Holy Cross, where he took part in and/or directed numerous community and civic programs. He also accumulated numerous scholastic honors before graduating as valedictorian. After graduation, he went to work for the John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign and was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. Favreau first met Barack Obama, then a state Senator from Illinois, while working on the Kerry campaign. In 2005, Obama's communications director Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as a speechwriter.[8] Favreau was hired as Obama's speechwriter shortly after Obama's election to the United States Senate. Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama referred to him as his "mind reader." He went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful presidential election campaign. In 2009, he was named to the White House staff as Director of Speechwriting. In January 2017, he co-founded liberal media company Crooked Media with fellow former Obama staffers Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett, and began co-hosting the political podcast Pod Save America with Vietor, Lovett and Dan Pfeiffer.