For me "Crunch Time" when our nation was deciding one of the most important issues a nation can ever deal with. "Crunch Time" was the September 23, 2002 when Al Gore made his courageous and forcefull speech to the Commonwealth Club of California. http://www.gwu.edu/... Crunch time was when the former govenor of Vermont demanded that our party stand up to a president who was going to start a war against a nation that did not attack us. Crunch time was when a state senator in Illinois looking to run for US senator was willing to speak up and protest the coming war www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhpKmQCCwB8
Finally, "Crunch Time" was February 15, 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/... More on my "Crunch Time"
It was the coldest day I had ever felt in Manhattan. Yet my train from New Jersey was filled with people going to the protest. We walked from Penn Station. We picked up signs in front of the 42nd Street Library. We walked and walked as Mayor Bloomberg had made sure that we had to go walk uptown and then walk south so we could stand in pens instead of being allowed to march to the UN. But there were hundreds and hundred of thousands of us. But there were no Senators from New York. In fact there were few Democratic leaders. I felt abandoned by my party. I told myself that I would never forget that feeling. It was a defining moment for me. I had become a Democrat during the Vietnam War. I had brought my children up to question and study before making a decision. I was so proud that my then high school freshman son had participated in an anti-war protest at his high school that month. I was heartbroken as I stood in that small vigil in my little New Jersey town the night before the war. I said I would not forget and I have not. It is why I worked for Howard Dean in 2003 and 2004. It was why I enthusiastically support Barack Obama. I have a Democrat running for president who was there at "Crunch Time."