HELLUVA SPEECH

We all saw history last night when Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to be their candidate for President of The United States. Or at least the fist step to history. History will be when he gets sworn in as President, the first black man to get there. He showed in Denver he's got the goods. His speech was powerful and no, it didn't make me turn into a worshipper. I've supported him from the time he announced his candidacy, not because he was some sort of Messianic cult leader, but because he seemed like the smartest guy in the race with the best policies and the least amount of vested interest in the Washington status quo.

I don't really get the whole "He's The One," approach to politics. Some of the people in his campaign need to lighten it up with that crap. He's not running as a black man, or a magic man, or a mystical man, but a man. An American man. You hear complaints from people that they're not feeling the magic mojo feelings like they did with Kennedy, or some people oddly enough felt for Reagan, and you have to wonder what they're looking for in a president. More than a president it seems, like what people did to John F. Kennedy and that whole nutty Camelot deal, an ideal no man can live up to. To his credit Obama's not biting and is running only on his policies and his vision for America. Which tells me he's really the right guy for the job, a man who wants to restore sanity and moral standing to America.

He laid out his story, unusual but not unprecedented in this country, and properly praised America for being the only country on earth where a story such as his can lead to a top-notch education, a law degree, public service and even the White House. His politics were shaped by service to the American people, his strength drawn from his wife and children and extended family, much like many of us. Which is not to say he is an ordinary man. I know plenty of guys who are ordinary men. Nice guys too. No reason to make them president. Barack Obama is clearly an extraordinary man; driven, confident, articulate, brilliant, original, moral and possessed of a broad vision for the nation he loves, head and shoulders above most men.

That's the kind of guy you elect President, not somebody who's run-of-the-mill, or worse, sub-normal like Bush The Younger. The idea that the president should be someone you feel comfortable having a beer with is absurd. The past eight years have underlined the fact that bad leadership can be disastrous. Like a lot of people, I wondered exactly how you can be given America, the gold standard among nations, and screw it up. Well, Bush The Younger and the Cheney Administration tried their best to screw up America on every level imaginable and even unimaginable both at home and abroad, and it is apparent at this point that they never intended to run the country as anything but a criminal enterprise, and as time went by they even stopped trying to hide it. When New Orleans drowned, they threw them an anchor and just went about their business of screwing America.

And now John McCain promises four more years of the same. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Elect Obama, not because to elect him will make history and show the world America has grown up when it comes to race, but because he's the best man for the job. The race thing is an added bonus, but only a bonus because the back man in question happens to be an outstanding man. McCain will be Bush/Cheney all over again. Barack Obama made a helluva speech last night, powerful, memorable, crystal clear and a compelling argument for electing him the the Presidency.

But oratory by itself is no reason to elect the man, and he knew this and laid out his program for America. He challenged McCain to do the same and to debate him on specific policy positions, not the phony patriotism questions and fear mongering that clueless Republicans have been using for eight years to smear their opponents in order to hide their lack of any ideas or qualifications. Don't look for McCain to accept Obama's invitation to take the high road. When you're out of ideas, mockery, lies and fear-mongering are your weapons of choice. Let's show these bozos nobody's afraid of them and restore some sanity to America. Vote Obama on November 4th.