Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I Am Voting FOR Somebody Now

So...speaking of changing the game, Obama's speech.

Wow. Just wow.

I'm too young to have seen the Kennedy inauguration. About the most inspirational thing that's happened during my lifetime has been the fall of the Berlin Wall. But, even then, I was probably more concerned with my Transformers than the transformative winds sweeping through a suddenly refreshed world. Of course, it's not like I've had much to work with.

I mean, some speechwriter deserves a raise. I knew Obama was - refreshingly - good with the rhetoric and, like so many others, I've been swayed by the rush of energy as he thunders his stump speeches like he's delivering them from a pulpit. But this speech wasn't just oratory. This speech was one that showed he can thread the needle. After days, weeks, of being pummeled in the campaign this was a speech that showed he can pivot and deflect, turning attacks aside even as he deconstructs them, undermines them. Without ever giving them any justification at all for existing.

It's like he's been reading what's been on my mind lately. But while I've still been fingering around the edges, getting the strange taste on my tongue, as I mulled things over, he's already figured out the steps that follow. The ones that he needs to put that line of thoughts into action.

I've been on the fence. Worried that Obama had a soft underbelly. That he was going to be too lofty, too noble, to do what needed to be done to secure the nomination. Especially as the lizard brain of the conservative attack machine has begun to stir into life. Obviously, I've been in the anti-Hilldog camp for some time, think she'd be a poor choice for the nomination and have for some time, but I haven't ever really been what you'd call an Obama supporter.

But now?

Now, that man is my president. And I'm willing to work hard to ensure that happens.

Because he cranked that speech out of the park.

And I think that he can do even better, one day. At an inauguration, at a State of the Union, during a nationally televised address. One of those has the potential to echo down through the ages and set imaginations on fire years, decades from now. Yes he can.

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