Revolution 2008, Day One

Losing Presidential nominees sure know how to pick them. In 1988, Mike Dukakis' keynote address was given by an Ozark boy named Bill Clinton who just went on and on and on (over an hour) but made a name for himself and four years later won the Presidency. In 2004, John Kerry hand-picked an almost total unknown from the south side of Chicago named Barack Obama who wowed the world in roughly 20 minutes with his vision about the "audacity of hope." While Kerry narrowly lost the election against Dubya, Obama won his Senate seat by a 4-1 margin and immediately thought of things even bigger.

Last night's win by Barack Obama officially winding up the Democratic nomination to be US President is more than just historic. To be fair, a steady stream of the PLEOs all day and going well into prime time put him close enough to make Montana (which he won) and South Dakota (which he lost) mathematical exercises. Still, what's happened can be called no less than a revolution. So much so that the Founding Fathers who defined a black or mixed race person as being 60% of a human being are probably spinning in their crypts so fast they're trying to sink the country they founded.

Tough luck, dead dudes. For 141 years after blacks were given full citizenship and 43 years after they won full voting rights, a US party has pulled off what even a decade ago would have been seen as totally unthinkable. In his speech last night, given in the same room where the GOP will have their convention in three month's time, Obama sounded perhaps the most presidential of any candidate America has seen in forty years.

It's hard to believe that 40 years ago today the last truly inspirational leader, Robert Kennedy, was ... um, we all know what happened so let's not go there.

By comparison, John McCain (the Republican nominee) spoke in New Orleans for obviously symbolic reasons but to a very small crowd of only about 200 and he was absolutely boring in launching his campaign; while in New York City Hillary Clinton was intransigent rather than offering to start the healing process now as it so desperately needs to be. I'm not really surprised she acted the way she did, but being a sore loser while pretending to be a "winner" is not most people's idea of being bigger than one is. If she was hoping for the veep slot, she lost it and while I think she has a role to play in an Obama administration -- presuming that's how it will be in January -- it won't be in the number two office.

The convention isn't till the end of August, so Obama needs to do somthing to stay in the news every single day so McCain can't possibly control the agenda. We all remember the Swift Boat campaign four years ago and the time between conventions for Dubya to more than get over the bump. But at long last, it's over. Let the Games begin. There are millions of Canadians, more than Sen. Obama knows, who are hoping and praying for him and dreaming the world's long nightmare may finally come to an end on November 4. But five months is an eon in politics.

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