Always remember to say thank you

Obama is aware that one of the first things you should do after a campaign is to thank your friends. So he through a ball for party staff - with Jay Z performing I've got 99 problems but a Bush ain't one.

Nate Silverman's description of what it means to be a volunteer member of staff is superb:

Young people generally perform paid campaign work, because the hours are absurd and the pay is marginal. For the vast majority, no job sits waiting at the end of the rainbow. Only the few make it through multiple “cycles,” the term for a campaign period. It is grueling on the body. Other areas of life are suspended or simply dropped. A campaign becomes all-encompassing. From the day you start until at least Election Day, it’s an all-day, every-day job. The sacrifices are sometimes hidden and private, little things you did that only you or maybe one or two who were right there will ever know or appreciate. And it all happens with the possibility that you won’t ultimately win.