I started out really excited about Barack Obama running for president, but I was hesitant to get on board early on. In 2004, I had been a hardcore Deaniac for months before anyone had even heard of him. I watched him make an improbable rise to frontrunner status only to see it all come crashing down after Iowa. When Obama began running for president, I held back and did not get my hopes up because I was afraid I'd get my heart broken again.
It wasn't until after Iowa that I was ready to even start rooting for Obama, and it was after South Carolina that I decided I just couldn't stay on the sidelines anymore. But since I have gotten involved, I have had this nagging feeling that something would happen to upset the apple cart and make everything fall apart just like what happened with Dean four years ago. And in the past few weeks, particularly since last Friday, I've been afraid that that moment has come. My respect for Obama did not waiver, but I had my doubts about whether or not he was ready and whether America was ready for him.
fter hearing his speech yesterday, I knew he was not only ready to be president but ready to be a great president. As John Robin Baitz wrote yesterday, "This, then, is what it means to be presidential. To be moral. To have a real center. To speak honestly, from the heart, for the benefit of all." I may be young, but I have enough knowledge of history and enough experience in Washington to know that it is rare that a politician as honest and authentic as Barack Obama comes along.
For years, I have watched "West Wing" and hoped that one day we'd have a candidate and maybe a president who is as genuine and moral as Josiah Bartlett (or either of the candidates vying to succeed him in later seasons), a president who was willing to put principle above politics at least once in a while. I thought Barack Obama might be that leader, but after yesterday I am convinced. Obama proved yesterday that he has the vision, courage, and integrity to be president.
The question now is, is America ready? Are we enlightened enough to put aside racial tensions in order to elect an extraordinary leader? Or we pass up this chance because we are just not ready, because we haven't reached that point in terms of racial reconciliation? Nobody knows, and the recent polling data as well as the outrage to what feels to me like a manufactured controversy over Obama's pastor are not encouraging. But for anyone who loves this country but recognizes that we have yet to live up to our full potential, the vision Obama eloquently laid out for America yesterday is a vision worth fighting for.
