President Barack Hussein Obama
In 2004 I heard about a speech given at the Democratic National Convention. After watching it my first thought was: my God, this man has a future in this party.
My second thought was: why does he have to be named Barack Hussein Obama?
But after today's historic events I understand.
America has, for the past eight years, worked to destroy itself, its place in the world as a leader, not only militarily and finacially, but as a beacon of reason and sanity.
Perhaps we could be forgiven the first four years of a Bush administration transformed by the disaster of 9/11 from merely blandly incompetent to actively evil.
But then came 2004.
We re-elected him.
To the world, and to ourselves, that was a nearly unpardonable sin.
And make no mistake, the blame then lay not only on the shoulders of Bush's supporters and voters, but on those of us on the left as well who failed to defeat him.
Which is why it is so important that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama is now President-Elect.
Because we on the left had to work that much harder to get him there. Because it forced the saner of Bush's former supporters to realize that they had to choose between the reason and sanity Obama represents, and the madness represented by their rabid far-right wing.
Which is why I'm also (now) thankful for Sarah Palin who made the choice even more stark.
And (while I'm feeling magnanimous) let me express my thought that we have done John McCain a great service by rejecting his presidential bid.
The McCain I saw tonight reminded be of the McCain I admired not so many years ago, like his soul had been held prisoner to the worst elements of the GOP campaign machine, but had suddenly been released.
So now the beginning is ended. Tomorrow (after sleeping late) we begin to face the many challenges that confront us, individually and as a nation. But now, as I never have before, I truly believe that we are up to the task.
We can do it together.
Yes, we can.
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