Sometimes people say Obama's full of words, no actions, and that his chants and phrases are not substantial quantifiers of change. Look at the records, they say. Look at the facts.
Here is what I am looking at:
I'm looking at numbers. I'm looking at how people outvoted Clinton by a margin of an almost perfect 2:1 ratio in South Carolina.
I'm looking at the huge masses of people he's able to motivate, and activate. I'm looking at rooms of people shouting "RACE DOESN'T MATTER!" and "U-S-A!" Really, when was the last time you heard anyone shouting that?
I'm looking at home videos people are creating and posting on the web in favor of their candidate. That is the sort of thing we need! From all our candidates supporters!
I'm looking at what can only be identified as rampant hope gone squealing from the bowels of the internet to coffee shops and cafes and rallies and fundraisers. The hope was there all along, but it was quiet hope, and now we have a leader who encourages that hope, and for us to be better people because we must, not because it's politically correct.
I'm looking at people raising ungodly sums of money for a cause they believe in.
I'm looking at how democrats in general have been coming to the polls in record numbers throughout the early states. And how states are so desperate for some of the action that they break the rules in order to have a say.
That's what's changing. People want a say.
And now they believe that they can have a say. So don't tell me that Obama isn't a change candidate. He's changing everything all the time.
Look at the conversations our bloviating press has been forced to have. We ARE changing. From those rusty tracks of well worn political discourse, we now have something new and different to talk about. And we can't talk about it in the old ways because bloggers will flood the inboxes of the news stations, and sometimes, our candidates themselves will denounce their bias.
I think Obama has inspired me to Not Put Up With This Shit Anymore.
I have become one of those people who floods the inboxes of television stations, and scoures the internet doing fact checking. Today I was on a mad search for democratic events near my town, I found none, but the fact that I was looking was a change I would have never expected from myself even 3 or 4 months ago.
For the remaining Hillary supporters who have read this far: Your candidate too, has changed the way we talk about politicians, how we do polls, and how we dissect the voting population. It is not right to deny otherwise.
However, what is important to notice is that Clinton is okay with identifying the "white vote" and the "black vote" and the "woman vote." She never asked us to come beyond these issues, and in her own way, has embraced them.
Obama is pushing for us to rethink the way we handle elections. When has "does negative campaigning work?" ever ligitimately been a question in American Politics. When has lobbyist money been a point of contention between candidates? That's where candidates GET their money (up until Edwards and Obama). It's been what we EXPECT, not what we wonder about. That he can change even that tiny slice of American politics gives me great boundless hope that he can indeed change a great deal more than that. That Hillary is being poorly recieved for playing politics as usual fuels my belief even further that yes, as a country, we are progressing. It makes me wildly happy.
This is an important conversation that our country is having now, and we can ill afford to pull away and settle back into a lull. If Obama does not win the nomination, and I hope he will, we can not forget how far we've come already and settle in for a mudslinging fest between Hillary and whomever. We must reject that at all costs. We will have to raise her up, like Obama raised us up.