Our time is now. No more lies and complacency.

I guess if I've learned anything in the past 10 years, it's about gutter politics. Most of the time, I think of these tactics as GOP or Rovian, such as attempting closet smears of gay people, drug users, black people, Muslims, Democrats, et al.

While I always have been proud to believe that the Democrats were better than that, I have always been equally disappointed in them  for their lack of courage. They have remained complicit bystanders at the scene of the majority of the GOP's crimes against America, standing in cowardly silence as the GOP, in the words of Bill Moyers, "asked America to look heavenward as they picked their pockets."

So I suppose I have never been happy with the governance of America. I've been patient with the Democrats. What choice do I have? I have waited patiently for leaders who can draw sharp contrasts with the amoral values we see in the Republican Party, Wall Street and in the boardrooms of this country.

I have waited patiently for someone to connect the dots between the crimes of the GOP and the failure to meet the needs of the American people, from the mother who lost a child in Iraq, to a homeowner in the 9th Ward,  to the family who unwisely trusted a financial institution and lost their house. I have waited.

I have waited for a candidate who can speak the truth, confine disagreements to policy and values, without resorting to dishonestly debating the content of a person's character. I have waited for a leader who treats all people with respect.

To me, a person like Hillary Clinton embodies the failure of the Democratic party he failure to lead with strength and honesty rather than  cowardice and narrow-mindedness.  

She cannot help but subdivide the Democratic coalition into its parts and play them against each other. Whether it's Hispanic citizens, older citizens, women that wish to see a strong female president, she has tried mightily to tell them that Barack Obama is not one of them. Not someone to be trusted.  

Even when she and her husband  had a chance to influence the system and affect change, she played elements of the party against each other in order to win the mythical centrist.

This behavior showed the cowardice that we now see in the leaders of the Democratic party.

Most tragically, she and her husband did so because they did not believe in what was possible. They could only fight rear-guard actions against the fruits of their own paranoia.

Thankfully, I now have an option.

I have found a candidate who knows that progress is dependent upon sharp contrasts that do not heap scorn onto the character of others, who does not run like a coward from the things in which we all believe. A leader who can lead and "disagree without being disagreeable."

That man is Barack Obama.

I believe that we have only one or two more chances in this crucial period in order to seek out and elevate true and effective leadership to the highest levels of American government.  We now have a candidate who can offer the transformational change we have been willing to drink the sand in the desert to find.

Yet we hold on to our old habits. Many of us believe that we cannot win except by division and subtraction. Yet in our hearts, we know that growth and addition, while difficult, are the only way to succeed.

So let us put our fears and divisions aside. The things we believe are simple. We believe that caring for others is a moral issue. We believe that defending America is something that must be done in proper proportion. We believe in keeping our budgets balanced and our debts low.

So let us take it to the next stage. Let us take our movement to the next step of addition. Let us leave subtraction and division behind.

Hillary is unfit to lead this nation. She cannot inspire beyond her tiny, subdivided kingdoms. Barack Obama sees not the red, not the blue, but one United States.

On March 4th, we in Texas and Ohio have a historic opportunity to bring a sad era in the history of the Democratic party to a close.

I beseech you not to pass it up.