I will admit to everyone, on the cusp of President-Elect Obama’s inauguration, that I have been drinking a lot of ‘Obama Kool-Aid’. I get it. I’m a ‘fanboy’, a ‘Socialist’, a ‘Liberal-elite’, and a ‘commie’.
So much of life is 50/50. Us humans are dumb creatures. We do not know anything that is coming. But we can look back.
I want to look back to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. John Kerry, with John Edwards at his side, were challenging the incumbent George Walker Bush for the Presidency of the United States.
It was a highly controversial time. We had just invaded Iraq and overtaken Baghdad on the assumption that Saddam Hussein not only harbored weapons of mass destruction with intent on using them to harm Americans, but also that the deceased dictator was directly linked to the 9/11 tragedies in New York City and Washington, DC. Both of which have proven to be false.
And while John Kerry and John Edwards didn’t win that election season, the DNC gave wind to a young man from Chicago. A Harvard educated state senator, with a track record of local grassroots success in Chicago, versus another Harvard educated GOP hasbeen, Alan Keyes. Elephant in the room? Both were black candidates in a notoriously white historical Senate.
Barack Obama was a late addition to the DNC. He expected a small role in the convention process, competing in a Senate race in the hotly competitive political year that was 2004. Yet he took to the stage graciously, and offered America, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest political speeches of all time.
When I first saw it, I was a semi-informed idiot kid. I first compared it to FDR and JFK. His poise, his timing, and his charisma – it was something I had never seen from a politician in my lifetime. I was rooting for him.
He won the Junior Senate seat in Illinois that year. When he started traveling the state to hear from the people what he could do to improve the state, everyone said,”Barack, not only can you improve our state. You should improve America.”
What at first was merely flattery from his constituents, the message became overwhelmingly clear as Barack traveled – people wanted him to change the landscape of American politics.
And the rest, they say, is history. Legions of Americans will write books about Barack Obama. The millions of grassroots volunteers this election season will continue his spirit and make the Democratic party a formidable foe in the decades to come.
When I endorsed Barack Obama to be the 44th President, a good friend of mine who is not religious told me, “Dan, you know I have a better chance at becoming a devout Christian than Barack does of becoming President right?”
My own Dad told me, “There is no chance that Barack Obama will be President.”
Truth is, I belived both of them. But I was inspired by him. He was a real chance for America.
And it all comes back to this speech. My favorite political speech ever. Closely coupled by the inaugration address’ of FDR, JFK, the speech on religion by JFK as a Catholic, the amazing communication ability of Robert Kennedy, and even Barack Obama’s speech on race this past summer.
If you haven’t watched this speech before, do yourself a favor and listen for 18 minutes. If you have watched this speech before, you owe it to yourself to watch it again. After all, this man was only a state senator four years ago and is now on the brink of history of being our 44th President. This was Obama’s introduction to America. We have since got to know him very well, but this speech still stands out as my Obama ‘Ah-Ha’ moment. Kick back and watch political brilliance in motion.
