He wanted to be president of the United States.

He should run for president.

The way he looked, the way he spoke,

convinced me that he was going to run for president someday.

I was like, you hear I'd be president out of the United States.

Everybody's gonna tell you that Obama said from the beginning he would be president.

I think he always knew.

He was always going to be president. He was always me president.

I disagree completely.

Do you know that this fool wants to be president?

Chicago political operator Al Kindle worked on Obama's campaigns

and always believed in his potential.

But he wasn't quite prepared when a friend called in the early 2000s

to say the young state senator was thinking about his political future

and he was thinking big.

I said, oh shit, we started laughing on the phone.

Obama, your mama, he wasn't even wet.

We started laughing. My side was hurting their phone.

He wanted to be wet. He wanted to be president of a who?

Liberia, what's wrong with my man?

So you, at that point, you thought it was kind of an outlandish idea

or did you?

...