I cannot stop crying. I am stunned. Barack Obama is the next president of the United States of America, and I cannot stop crying. America closed the deal. Yes, we did. It is hard to focus right now. My mind is traveling sporadically. I am in Jax, Florida, being hugged by Family, friends, neighbors and strangers I met during the primaries. I am trembling at my Dads bedside moments after he passed away on my birthday March 28, 2008. I've been going through my thoughts, one after another, trying to figure out the right words I want to use to express the thoughts I've had since my dad passed. And the main problem that I've come to is that there are just way too many things to choose from.
Choosing from those memories are a task, because how do I possibly put into words a description that can even possibly come close to expressing to the world about the man who is responsible for everything I am today? I wish my dad could have been here with me to witness this historical night. I am exhausted. I am restless. I am America. This is happening. We shook the world. We won. Last night, at five past 11, a collective roar made its way across living rooms and restaurants and the streets of cities and towns. Strangers sought each other out to hug one another and share in this moment.
At my own watch party, chants of "Yes we can!" And what a ride this has been. The manner of this campaign is as important as its ultimate outcome. Grassroots organizing met peer-to-peer networked technologies, learned from old school campaigning and was remixed through new school art. And it won. We won! Our new president. Our new president, Barack Obama, truly represents us, America and the world.
He is Kenya and Hawaii. He is Chicago and Kansas, and through his gifts, his timing and his blessings, we have risen to a great occasion. This campaign was a fire that forged a president and a people, and we have emerged stronger for the trial. It is not simply that we chose an African American or a Democrat for our first post-baby boom leader, although those are all significant milestones. It is not simply that we chose a communicator and scholar and a man who so clearly demonstrates family values through the love and respect he shows his wife and daughters, although those too are significant milestones. It is not simply that we chose, but also that we rejected.
We rejected smears and race-baiting and Muslim-baiting and desperation. We rejected so much history and so many rules that have bound us to the way things have been and are supposed to be. We rejected fear. Most importantly, we rejected fear. Our better angels prevailed for one critical moment which can and will change forever the moments to follow. We said resoundingly that we are not afraid. We are not afraid of the world out there. We are not afraid of ourselves.
In rejecting that fear, we have shed something awful, at least for a time, and in so doing we have liberated ourselves. I am still crying, but they are tears of possibility for all that we are free to do and free to be.Yes, we did. I feel like we, as a nation, stepped back from the edge of the cliff leading to the Abyss. We have nowhere to go but UP. We have the opportunity to remake the government and ourselves as just, compassionate, and wise. Maybe it will take time to win over the greedy and the bigots. Maybe it will happen fast, like a tsunami wave. Who knows what happens when HOPE energizes a people? Yesterday I had faith as small as a mustard seed. Today I believe we can move mountains.
Honestly she didn't hit it out of the ballpark if you ask me..she didn't trip over her words..she didn't exactly read from the teleprompter like McCain so maybe that's why think she did so well but she has been speaking in front of crowds for years....beauty pagents, town halls, she is a govenor of a state...even though it is short lived. I honestly think it was so strategic..not b/c John McCain honestly believes in a woman's ability to do anything...let's not forget he called his wife a c***.....he respects women? To me she still didn't say one thing she will do as a president or VP, she will be able to relate to soccer moms, parents whom children have special needs? it's a ploy to pull those people's votes....I do not understand how a parent can choose to run for the white house knowing that they will be exposing their teenage daughter to international scrutiny. I think it is cruel, and will back fire on them.
Aides to Sen. John McCain quickly took to the airwaves to deplore any conversation regarding Bristol Palin, saying the issue is private. Even Sen. Barack Obama made it clear that the children of candidates are off-limits.
But of course, that didn't keep some folks from trying to score political points.
"This is the pro-life choice. The fact that people will criticize her for this shows the astounding extent to which the secular critics of the pro-life movement just don't get it," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told David Brody of the Christian Broadcast Network.
"Those who criticize the Palin family don't understand that we don't see babies as a punishment but as a blessing."
Now, for everyone on the left and the right, please, shut up for a moment and consider the broader issue here.
We have a crisis in America and Bristol Palin exemplifies that. She's an unwed teenager who is now pregnant, forced to raise a child far too soon.
She is a teenager who chose to have pre-marital sex, which I thought many of these same evangelicals deplored based on biblical reasons. She is a teenager who had unprotected sex, and should thank the Lord that the young man she was with didn't have a sexually transmitted disease.
According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 46.8 percent of all high school students say they have had sex, which is a decrease from 54 percent.
I can't forget the young woman in the CNN documentary Black in America who talked about having sex for the first time, only to be infected with HIV. That one decision has altered her life in a significant way.
It's worthy to examine the issue because Gov. Palin said in 2006 that she was dead set against any federal funding for sex education, but was an avid supporter of abstinence-only funding.
But it's clear that abstinence-only didn't work in her own household. So, should she and her supporters re-examine their position?
On a CNN Radio show yesterday, Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, wasn't too thrilled to discuss the issue of Palin's daughter. But when pressed, she said she still supports abstinence-only funding, and not sex education funding.
"I think that is the way we have to work with our children and you have to engage parents in this issue," she said. "This is something you talk about at the kitchen table and you sit down with your children."
But let's be honest. A ton of parents aren't having this conversation, so why not deal with it in the public policy arena?
As an evangelical, I think liberals and conservatives are wrong on this issue. The situation is so dire and prevalent that it's wrong for liberals to completely dismiss abstinence, and it's wrong for conservatives to refuse to accept birth control and condom education as part of a sex-education curriculum.
We desperately need comprehensive sex education that incorporates all of these issues if we are to attack the problem -- and enough of the blowhards on both sides who think their way is the only way.
As America harnessed its resources to tackle an emerging hurricane on the Gulf Coast, these same politicos and activists tried to run away from a similar issue in St. Paul, Minnesota, that involves our children.
I don't give a flip about a politician, pro-choice or anti-abortion activist, or the implications of this story on the presidential chances of Sen. John McCain and Sarah Palin, or Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
What matters most -- and should be the priority of all -- are the thousands and thousands of young women who are dealing with these issues every day, many of whom don't have supportive parents with a good health care plan.
This is not a Republican issue or Democratic problem. We need to put aside the partisan B.S. and confront unplanned pregnancies. Let's do all we can to keep our kids from either having pre-marital sex or unprotected sex.
Then we won't have to deal with them choosing to have an abortion or not, or, as the Palins noted in their statement, seeing our children "grow up faster than we had ever planned" and having to confront "the difficulties of raising a child."
Holla at Them!
Here’s what most of us seem to know: Obama has 260 superdelegates, and Hillary has 273.
A lot of us have been throwing those numbers around like we really know what we’re talking about. I’ll only speak for myself when I say I’ve never been as involved in an election as I have been in this one. And I’ve certainly never had as many conversations about the whole election process as I’ve had about this election. I’m sure that I must have taken a political science course in college and some civics or social studies classes in high school, but I don’t remember them.
Like many of you, this primary election season has given me a crash course in politics. And I’m trying to keep up.
For example, as much as we talk about superdelegates, do most of us really know who they are or what they do? According to the 2008 Democratic Convention Watch website, there are 795 (not including Michigan and Florida) total Democratic superdelegates that the nominees are trying to be endorsed by.
Superdelegates are made up of Democratic governors and members of Congress, former presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter; former vice president Al Gore, retired congressional leaders, and all Democratic National Committee members, such as my girl Donna Brazile, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Superdelegates automatically get to cast a vote at the convention this summer to decide who the party’s nominee will be. They can come out any time before their state’s primary and pledge to support either Obama or Clinton. That support is actually a vote that moves the candidate closer to the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination.
Before the superdelegate system was put into place, party bosses that were usually white men had way too much power and influence in the way candidates were nominated. So, in the 70s the party’s rules were changed to open the process to more grassroots activists, women and ethnic minorities.
Usually, by the end of the primary season, it’s clear who the presidential nominee will be. Of course, this is not a usual election, and it looks like the battle between Obama and Clinton will not only go beyond the primary season but all the way up to the convention. If this is the case, the role of the superdelegates will be huge.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know who some of these superdelegates are and how you can get in touch with them to let them know how you would like them to vote. We know it’s ultimately up to the individuals, but I don’t see how letting them know how we feel can hurt. Even though this is radio advocacy, it isn’t a case where we’re contacting a person to yell at them or make a demand. It’s more like a “let me holler at you” kind of thing.
Here’s the first list of uncommitted super delegates and their e-mail addresses. Holla at them.
Rep. Chris Carney (PA) h ttp://carney.house.gov/contact.shtm
Joyce Beatty, DNC (Ohio) Dist rict27@ohr.state.oh.us
Gilda Cobb-Hunter gch@schouse.org
Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.) http://clyburn.house.gov/zip_code_veri fy.cfm
Akaka, Daniel K.- (HI) http://akaka.senate.gov/public/inde x.cfm ?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Baucus, Max- (MT) http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/em ailFo rm.cfm?subj=issue
Biden, Joseph R., Jr.- (DE) http://biden.senate.gov/services/contact/
Brown, Sherrod- (OH) http: //brown.senate.gov/contact/
Byrd, Robert C.- (WV) http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html
Cardin, Benjamin L.- (MD) http ://cardin.senate.gov/contact/
Carper, Thomas R.- (DE) http ://carper.senate.gov/contact/
I Find it humorous that so many are focused on Barack Obama's comment about people being bitter" about their economic plight in small towns.Denial is not going to make this fact dis-appear when people are living it everyday.
This country has come a long way when you see two strong candidates, one an African American and one a woman, both highly qualified and running for the highest office in the land.
We, as Americans, have many reasons to be proud of this country. It appears as though many barriers color, race and gender have all been shattered for some and at least seriously questioned, by others.
Barrack Obama is the person to foster change in our great country, and God knows we need it. He is the person who will restore respect for our country from other nations. He will not be the decider. He will be the uniter and facilitator for peace.
Obama did not become the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review by not knowing the meaning of change. Obama is Change.
