The Race Is On
Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 10:13:54 AM PDT
The race is on. Nobody is getting pre-emptively coronated by the media. Not Clinton. Not Obama. Thank god.
This is as good as it gets. Two serious candidates. The stakes couldn't be higher. The Presidency of the United States. And someone is going to have to win this nomination the old-fashioned way. With the big win in Iowa, there is no question Obama can compete on every front. He has the money. The tide is turning on endorsements. But he is depending on us to bring it home.
Si se puede. Yes we can.
A committed group of activists, volunteers and organizers sustained his campaign all through that long, tough summer and fall, when conventional wisdom suggested Clinton would win in a cakewalk. As I diared last fall, hundreds of thousands of small dollar donors bought a piece of the campaign long before we knew how that might pay off. We prepared back then to fight hard for the nomination. For two days it looked like that might not be necessary. But it turns out no one is going to hand it to us. So much the better.
After seven years of the surreality-based community, of the extraordinary rendition of the U.S. Constitution, of learning that deliberately fostering government incompetence and selling its most critical functions off to the highest bidder has fatal consequences, it is time to take back our government. The Obama campaign has been a campaign of engagement and participation from the beginning. Building that engagement in a national campaign is the best thing that could happen to the Democratic party as we look toward November.
Last night in his speech, Obama showed tremendous grace under pressure. He recognizes the obstacles, but isn't daunted by them. And he talked about the core strength of his campaign - the people who have sustained it from the beginning, and the new people who are showing up every day now. Am I disappointed? Of course. Am I energized? You bet.
Si se puede. Yes we can.
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