I had never heard of Obama until his speech at the Dem convention in 04. I remember asking myself, "who is this guy?" When he was considering running for President, I knew who he was and took interest in what he had to say.
I don't think 99.9% of the people ever heard of him until that 04 speech. I remember before the speech, the commentators stating how "Obama was going to electrify the convention, and we would be seeing him running for national office in the near future".
