2008 was really one to remember. How will history recall this year? Recession? Michael Phelps Gold Medal Run and Opening/Closing Ceremonies at the Olympics? 18-1? 0-16? Nope, history will remember 2008 most vividly when the name Barack Obama rings.
On November 4th, more than 69 million Americans cast their vote for change and elected Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States of America. It was a long and unprobable journey that started in February of 2007 in Illinois where Obama told frigid supporters of his longshot candidacy for our nation’s highest office. His resume was short and his national experience almost futile. But Barack Obama had the best political weapon of all, the people. The very people that started pleading with him in 2004 to run for President, when he had been a senator for just over a month.
The appeal to Barack Obama was we could all relate to the man. At a time in our country where we needed something to hold onto, here came this man with a goofy name that captured our optimism. “Too many people are feeling the American dream slip away”, Obama said often, “And as President I will work with you to reclaim that American dream.” That probably won him the Presidency right there.
Barack’s beliefs and straight to the core demeanor earned him people’s trust, and people in turn wanted to work for him. The Obama campaign organized the single greatest political grassroots and internet driven campaign to beat the politically established icons like Clinton and McCain.
Future Mr. President
Obama has never asked us to buy into something we couldn’t take. My favorite thing that he said all campaign was, “I will always be honest with you.” He isn’t selling us a pipedream or asking us to comprehend the deepest complexities of the global world. He instead asked us to believe we can make our world better, and that subscribing to the belief of change could bring America back to where it was. And while just ‘change’, ‘hope’, and ‘belief’ don’t bring tangible results- viable and sustained progress cannot be made until people are motivated to do so.
Maybe it was all hype, the next four years will determine that. But on November 4th the entire world cheered and danced in the streets to celebrate a new world. A world where a black kid with no Father can become the President of the United States. A world that showed that America still had better judgement than to allow the past eight years of failure continue. And a world where humans still grasped onto the notion of hope, and the fundamental belief that no how bad today was, the sun will still come up tomorrow, and a brighter day will come.
Hope, and the inherent admiration and possibilities, for the idea of a new world, with Barack Obama at the helm, are my favorite part of 2008.
Yes We Can & Yes We Did
