What a week it has been

November 10th, 2008 | Filed under Blog, Politics, Quotes

I’ve been thinking all week about how to talk about Obama’s election. A combination of relief, pride, sadness, elation and disbelief only begin to define every moment I realize that the guy I believe in won. And won big.

I almost thought of not posting anything about the election, figuring what could I possibly say that hasn’t been said by the national news media 4 billion times. However, every time I turned on the news I never heard the most compelling story of the entire campaign. The fact that I was right.

Now I’m just kidding, this post isn’t about how I made Obama my guy back in 2005 and how I posted (link) about him running for president in January, 2006. It is about the fact that the American people finally got up off the couch and elected an intelligent man who has managed to rise above all the political nonsense that we have been subjected to for the past 14 years.

I’ll admit I had my doubts about Obama around October-Novemeber of 2007. He was flailing around trying to figure out a consistent message to present, and had been doing pretty badly in the huge snow white and the seven dwarfs* style debates. But then one Saturday afternoon I tuned into a town hall meeting with Obama hosted by MTV and a bunch of college kids. I’d been upset with Obama and frustrated with his response to questions and not presenting himself as the smart, quick witted guy I knew him to be from his podcasts, speeches and books.

He then proceeded to remind me why he was my guy. He spoke honestly, he spoke with authority, and when necessary he spoke in an educational tone that reflected the intelligence of his audience. The fact that he managed to get his point across without treating his audience like a bunch of idiots jump started the audience and you could tell he was hitting his stride in terms of policy and its presentation.

You can watch the whole thing on the poorly implemented MTV website here on mtv.com.

It was this moment specifically, as I chilled out on the couch probably snacking on something, that I was shown that this guy was going to stand up and take the Presidency from all the candidates that felt it was “their turn” to win. For me he did so that weekend and never looked back. He did it all, I feel with this quote from the end of the discussion. It is what I feel truly defined his campaign. Not his race, or name, or family, or upbringing, or education, or friends, or religious beliefs. It was this simple statement that ‘I want people to be for something.’ That was an idea that I don’t think the American people has truly heard since Kennedy. And history has now proven that they were ready to hear it. Here is the rest of the quote.

“I’m not interested in just rallying people around being against something, whether its George Bush or one of my opponents. I want people to be for something. I want, especially young people, to feel that at the end of the day, we still have the capacity to rally around the country. That were not just a collection of red states and blue states, or politics is this petty partisan trivialized business. I want people to feel that, you know what, we’ve got some big problems and you guys are part of the solution. You can make a difference.” – Sen. Barack Obama, Oct. 29 2007

Now I can’t wait for January ’09 when I can enjoy another January of relishing my Obama fanhood.

*Reference to the West Wing tv show.