Cross posted from my blog.
This is the story of a movement that swept a nation, overthrew a political regime, and has already delivered so much of the "change" he has promised. The young voters, once viewed as complacent and apathetic with regards to government, got into the driver’s seat and wrested control of the steering wheel from the generations before them in whose hands our country took a turn for the worse. Barack Obama, the liberal senator from Illinois, campaigned in Atlanta and Boise, New Orleans and New Hampshire, crossing borders that other Democrats would’ve avoided, labeling those states as red, places where we had no chance.
Pundits and politicos will claim this is an historic moment because Barack Obama is black. But readers, you must realize that this should not be tonight’s headline. Barack Obama’s campaign, a steam engine accelerating to the rhythm of the chants "Yes We Can" roared across the country in the face of opponent’s crying "No You Can’t." Race is always an issue in America, but race is not "the" issue tonight. The story tonight is that change has trumped experience, that we value ethics above ethnicity, that we believe we have a chance to, as he stated tonight, "bring a new and better day to America."
On December 23, 2007, Girl Zero officially endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency, but the decision was made in our hearts the moment Barack Obama climbed on-stage in Boston in the summer of 2004 and gave us a politician that we could relate to, a man who has spent as much time in the community as in legislative chambers. That summer, as a Kerry campaign worker, I met Barack Obama at a reception for the Illinois delegates. He and his beautiful, charismatic and elegant wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha greeted me with smiles and handshakes, despite the late hour and exhausting events of the day. People have expressed that shaking Bill Clinton’s hand gives you the sensation of being close to tremendous power. Shaking Barack Obama’s hand makes you aware of your own power; as though this man looks you in the eye and believes in you as much as he believes in himself.
From day one of this campaign, he has done what no candidate has done, in that he has acknowledged that getting his campaign off the ground would take a collective, collaborative effort extending beyond the K Street addresses that have so long governed our country. "Yes We Can," a resounding slogan that with the word "we" became a chant for unity.
We realized the potential that this man brings to our country and the world, and we nominated him. Yes We Did. And now, fueled by our victory and hope-filled hearts, we will carry him into the White House. Yes We Will.