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Like most Americans, Vinson Cunningham first became aware of Barack Obama in 2004, when he gave a breakout speech at the Democratic National Convention. \u201cVery good posture, that guy,\u201d Cunningham noted. \u201cWe hang our faith on objects, on people, based on the signs that they put out,\u201d Cunningham tells David Remnick. \u201cAnd that\u2019s certainly been a factor in my own life. The rapid and urgent search for patterns.\u201d Although Cunningham aspired to be a writer, he got swept up in this historic campaign, working on Obama\u2019s longshot 2008 run for the Presidency, and later worked in his White House. Cunningham\u2019s adventures on the trail inspire his first novel, \u201cGreat Expectations,\u201d an autobiographical coming-of-age story about where and how we seek inspiration.\xa0 Cunningham recalls that Obama was seen as the \u201cfulfillment\u201d of so many hopes and dreams for people like himself. Now he wishes the former President were playing a larger role. \u201cI will admit that it has been dispiriting,\u201d in Obama\u2019s post-Presidential life, \u201cto see him making movies and being on Jet Skis as the world burns. \u2026 more like a movie star than someone whose great hope is to change the world.\u201d\xa0