I Heard it Downtown

Did you guys all see that?

The punditocracy and the blogosphere are all pounding away at their keyboards, trying to find the correct superlatives to describe what we all saw and heard last night. I don’t think I have any unique ones. It was historic, inspiring, and very uniquely American. I think that students of journalism, history and political science will be hearing about this speech, and this convention, in their textbooks. In his 50 min. address last night, Barack Obama showed us the stakes for this election, and crystallized the reasons why I enthusiastically support him this year.

Yup, I’m an unabashed, enthusiastic supporter of Obama, and I don’t care who knows it. I do not support Obama because I am terrified of his opponent (like I did with Kerry in 04, and Strickland in 06). On the contrary, I believe John McCain is a good and decent human being with a record that shows some legislative accomplishment. Obama does not deserve support because he would make a less bad leader than the Other Guy…a distinction we unfortunately apply to most of our “preferred candidates”. I support Obama because I think he will be a great leader. Because I believe in his policies, and more importantly, because I believe in what Obama represents.

This is not an exercise in youthful naiveté. I have worked in local, state and the federal government. I have more state ID badges than a 9 year old has Pokemon cards. I have gone to school, lived and worked in Washington DC. I am familiar with the System, and I know the Score.

I also am pretty intimately familiar with what happens when a rising Politician spectacularly fails. I did work for Marc Dann after all.

The Republicans tell us that we should shun the popular, fear the new, and follow our craven, cynical instincts. When a politician is able to draw 70,000 to hear him speak…he doesn’t have ideas worth listening to, he’s an empty suit celebrity (which is total bullcrap coming from John McCain, a man who has hosted SNL twice, has been on Leno 11 times, and even appeared in the movie Wedding Crashers). They try to make support for Obama seem like that of a hormone-drunk 15 year old, all hopped up on her first crush. Its ridiculous.

Obama said last night our country can do better than this, and we can. We shouldn’t have to begrudgingly settle for less bad in our candidates, and in our government services. We shouldn’t sigh and excuse poor decisions as “Typical Washington”. I’m proud of my country, and I should be proud of my government too.

Barack Obama is not Superman. He cannot fly into Washington, rebuild Iraq, fix our failing schools, and repair our broken trust in one fell swoop. He can’t even dunk a basketball.

But these problems are not insurmountable. With time, sacrifice, investment, and the expectation that we will, we can do these things.

So to hell with the naysayers, I’m going all in. I bought the T-Shirt, signed up to volunteer, and that Mormons for Obama bumper sticker is going to have a hard time coming off my car. If a biracial, son of an immigrant, Midwestern-raised guy can make it in this country, whats stopping me?

I’m supporting Obama for president. I hope America does the same.

God Bless America.