There will be much analysis of Barack Obama's historic victory last night. How he pulled off wins in states that usually vote Republican. How his campaign ignored the skeptics, stuck to its course, and has now been vindicated. It's all true, and it's all good. Yet this campaign has been about a story, uniquely American story that ought to be told to generations who are now too young to vote.
It starts with two crowded fields in the race for the presidency. There was much conventional wisdom 20 odd months ago, and it focused on who would capture the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. Barack Obama and John McCain were two candidates that few thought would be facing each other November 4th. For Obama, conventional wisdom was he'd make a respectable showing, one that would position him to run again further down the road.
Barack Obama didn't see it that way, and he promoted a vision of hope and change that connected not just with young people, but with Americans who believed change was necessary for the sake of the republic. He spoke to the best instincts of millions of us, hard working people who were smarter than the pundits believed. His campaign sent people from one part of the country to neighboring states, to talk to folks and deliver his message.
It worked. It all worked. And in the end, he gave a speech that made Colin Powell weep. It won't be easy to implement his agenda, even with the gains his party made in Congress. The American economy is ailing, and it will take the best minds of the country to make it better. And yet, there is belief that if anyone can bring those minds together, it's the guy who won last night, a guy whose inspiration was, among other things, a 106 year old woman in Atlanta.
A page turned in America last night. What lies ahead will make for some interesting reading.
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2 comments:
Great blog text. I can't believe you are so "awake and aware" (to borrow a title from a Lamaze childbirth book of decades ago). I wrote my little essay before I even read any emails this morning. My pal in England stayed awake,but I fell asleep and missed the two best hours.
I have said that Barack Obama saved the Democratic Party. I also realized that the 20month seeming endless campaign was to Obama's benefit as so few people knew his name or about him (other than the keynote speech at the 2004 Dem. convention, which seems like long long ago).
The spin of the mainstream media on his win is already full of much nonsense and I can only take NPR in the smallest of doses. What are the newspapers online punditing?
PS Mark Maron's 9 min. video on the Guardian.co.uk website had me in tears for the first 6 minutes:last day thru win speech in Wash.DC. I think I'm still in awe phase of the Obama win.
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