Everyone has come up with fantastic moments, and I agree with every single one. But you know, what’s he’s done in the last 2 days alone (since he won the nomination) has been pretty incredible.

1. His speech at AIPAC. He completely won them over–that crowd was on their feet cheering at the end.

2. His “takeover” of the DNC. No drama, but forceful decisions. It’s his party now. No mistake.

3. His smackdown of Lieberman on the Senate floor.

4. Introducing his transparency in government legislation–a bill that McCain was jumping up and down to ensure he was included on as an original sponsor.

5. His HUGE rally in Bristol, VA (SW part of the state) yesterday–dipping into Appalachian territory a bit—and then coming on up to Northern VA for another HUGE rally.

6. His secret meeting with Hillary. I really didn’t expect them to have a substantive meeting so soon.

He’s done all that in just 2 days. Imagine what his first 100 days in office will look like.

Anyway. I think it was just after the Iowa primary …. but I’m not remembering 100%.

I was only vaguely aware of the primary before that, and was all set to be cynical and disengaged.

I didn’t expect to be able to really affirmatively support whoever they would pick for the nominee and I *really* didn’t expect it to be Obama.

I remember being at work the day I really started caring and wanting to add my voice to the call for Senator Obama to be the nominee. I remember calling the county to find out about the date to re-register, finding out I had missed it by one day. Telling my co-workers I was embarrassed but I started caring all of a sudden — really visceral kind of thing, grabbed my heart and spirit so I couldn’t ignore it. I didn’t know what to make of it.

I couldn’t vote for him. I missed the deadline. My girlfriend is registered Democrat. She doesn’t have a car and it was icy (in Tucson yet) that morning and she biked several miles before work to the polling place and placed her vote for Senator Obama.

She was doing it for us both. He didn’t win AZ but at least my family did something that day, even if I dropped the ball myself.

I have since been blown away by how much I have cared, and continue to care since then.

-And all those wins on “Super Tuesday” even if my state didn’t.

-And the interview after Texas and (what was that other state that day?) where he said he had been performing rather than connecting with people. I heard that but was so moved to hear him say it, because who would expect a presidential candidate’s observations to intersect with my own.

-Oh! And his amazing powerful statement about how he was running for president when Ms. Hillary tried to pull the “he should be my vp” crap even as she was behind. That was a huge moment for me.

To this day, he has not disowned Rev. Wright. He resigned from the church, and rejected his conduct at the National Press Club. But he did not disown him, or the church.

He leads. He leads, and he does it without relying on his weaknesses. He leads through strength and example, and he invites us to be part of something far bigger than each one of us.

I will never, ever forget that speech. Not as long as I live.

Obama ‘08!!!

1. August 2008: Acceptance Speech at the Democratic Convention

2. ~September-October 2008: Decimating Debate Performances against John McCain proving who should be the Next Commander-in-Chief.

3. Tuesday – Nov 4th around 11:30PM: The AP declares that Barack Obama has captured 272 electoral votes making him the First AA President of the United States.

4. January 20th 2009 – 12Noon – US Capitol – Seeing Barack take the Oath of Office with Michelle holding the Bible. I’ll be somewhere standing among the million people in front of the Capitol.

5. January 20th 2009 – around 11PM – attending the first ever Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball with Jay-Z, seeing the President of the US “brush his shoulders off.”

It was his speech at the 2004 Convention. I watched in awe and by the end I was in tears and it set me on a path to find out who this man was and what he was about.

It was the same feeling that he stirred in my spirit then that guides me to support him now.

It was what I learned later about him and his wife, Michelle that has made me one of his staunchest supporters.

It has been a wonderful ride and I always knew he would be where he is right now.

After reading Dreams from My Father, I felt even more connected and was assured that this man is here for the good of all politics aside.

The last bit was Morning Joe screaming in 2006 that Obama should just sit the race out becaue he will creamed by Hillary!

But my favorite moments were:
1. The Iowa victory. Amazing. Made me proud of our white brothers and sisters.
2. Hoodwinked comment. I fell off my chair
3. Brush your shoulders off. I fell off my chair
4. 11 straight…OMG He was killin em son. lol
5. His beautiful black family. Michelle, Malia and Sasha
6. Mrs. O getting her daps on Tuesday
7. Michelle Obama overall
8. Being black in 2008. Being an American in 2008

The Star Wars Reference:

From Wikipedia

Palpatine is a fictional character in George Lucas’ science fiction saga Star Wars. The character, portrayed by actor Ian McDiarmid in the feature films, is the main antagonist of the saga; introduced in the original trilogy as the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, an aged, cowled and pale-faced figure, who rises to power in the prequel trilogy through deception and treachery as a peaceful, democratic middle-aged politician of the Republic, while in reality, is Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith who initiates and manipulates the Clone Wars to destroy the Jedi and usher in the totalitarian Galactic Empire. His Sith apprentices include Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, and Darth Vader.

Briefly mentioned by Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), George Lucas’ original scripts of Star Wars characterize the Emperor, initially named Cos Dashit, as a cunning but weak politician under the control of powerful bureaucrats. However, in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the prequels, and Star Wars literature, the character is depicted as the personification of evil and heavy-handed authoritarianism. Palpatine was incorporated into the Star Wars merchandising campaigns that corresponded with the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi and the prequel films. The character has since become a symbol of evil and sinister deception in popular culture, particularly in the United States.

That endorsement said to superdelegates, who ultimately decided the primary race, that it was okay to come off the bench and endorse Obama. It said to elected officials that you can go against the biggest brand name in the Party’s recent history because the most celebrated brand name in the history of Democratic politics has your back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhPxSm9Es0w&feature=related

::

ACTION ALERT – PLEASE EMAIL THE AUTHORS OF THE ABOVE STATEMENT.

Here’s The Link

This is the email I sent:

In your article about Barack “aping” Jay-Z, it seems, given the subject, that your word choice is far too charged.

Why not use the verb “signify,” which is also a cultural reference without the negativity.

Surely you would know that African Americans have been slurred by being called apes, wouldn’t you?

Language is powerful.

Your word choice, in this context, is unacceptable.

::

Please take action.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rxvSqSXs0io

::

How could I have forgotten to list this (not that I made a list).

That is among my favorite speeches of the campaign.

His Closing Arguments to Indianapolis was another unknown but great speech.

I also think about kids–now anybody can be anything. The black kid getting bullied on the playground can say, “Well, I’m going to be President some day,” and not get laughed at. It’s something special.

I think about the 23,000 people who were shot 15 miles from my house 140 years ago on a September Day. They were supposedly fighting about “states’ rights.” Local legend says the Antietam Creek ran red with blood for an entire day. Three weeks later, there was the Emancipation Proclamation.

Yet in some ways this is besides the point. Barack Obama got nominated because he is one gifted politician. He did not get nominated because of the color of his skin, yet one cannot ignore the significance of the moment.

An Obama victory in November would give this country a good President. It would give this country a person with intelligence and a grasp of the details in the oval office. It would give this country a person with enormous talents, which could be used mending fences destroyed by Bush’s arrogance. It would also be the fulfillment of an American dream started in 1776.

Still, it’s only half-time. Lots can go wrong–lots will go wrong–between now and November. I will work twice as hard in the fall as I did in the Spring. And if we are successful in November–if it happens–I will be over joyed for many reasons. Not the least of which is returning intelligence and decency to the oval office.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060404521.html

It was the fist bump heard ’round the world.

As Barack Obama walked onstage in St. Paul, Minn., to claim the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, he and wife Michelle hugged and then, gazing into each other’s eyes with knowing smiles, gently knocked knuckles.

He also gave her a playful little pat on the butt, but it was the bump that got everyone talking. “That is the picture!” exulted one poster on the Jack and Jill Politics blog (which offers “a Black bourgeois perspective”). “When I saw them give each other dap, I was like ‘Hell yeah!’ ”

Dap, fist pound, whatever you want to call it– it’s definitely something we’re not used to seeing on the national political stage.

“It thrilled a lot of black folks,” said author and commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates, who blogs at ta-nehisi.com. Why? Because it’s the kind of gesture that, while commonplace in the African American community, was generally stifled by earlier generations of blacks working their way up into the corporate or political worlds for fears “about looking too black,” he said. But Obama “is past that. . . . He wears his cultural blackness all over the place.” (Remember his aping of Jay- Z’s “dirt off your shoulder” move in a recent speech?) “It’s liberating to be able to run for president as a black man. . . . Barack is like Black Folks 2.0.”

Personal favorite, can’t give it a number- Seeing Pfleger’s “impersonation” of Senator Clinton. It was honest, really. All she and her surregates did was cry cry cry. Everything was poor Hillary, poor vagina having Hillary. He may have forced Obama to leave his church but I still love this impersonation.

1. The “race” speech. He managed to give both sides of the issue-white and black- argue their reasons for their hatred and then turned it back on both groups. I have never been so moved and to see my father, 60 years old, say it was the best speech he had ever seen will always stay with me. He saw King, Malcolm, everyone and yet this was the time he was truly impressed.

2. Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Senator Obama. It did save him from the memo that he was “too black” to win this. Her endorsement mattered more than most because she isn’t known to give such praise and support to political figures. It was the endorsement of the last surviving piece of the Kennedy White House and all the hope that came with that presidency. Truly amazing.

3. Michelle Obama. Up until this campaign, outside of my mother, I didn’t have a black female public figure that I could say “I can relate to her.” She’s educated, intelligent, opinionated, beautiful, loving, and supportive. To see this woman on the cover of Newsweek, no ass hanging out, not making a fool of herself, all black and beautiful is something I’ll always treasure. Hopefully the mainstream is listening and will allow us black women more positive images of black women.

4. The Clinton campaign’s race baiting. I list this because it once and for all showed the black community that there wasn’t anything substantial to the notion that Pres. Clinton helped black America. He played the sax, he ate some chicken, he had oral sex in his place of work. That’s not black and it certainly doesn’t qualify him to be an honorary black person. The illusion that they did anything substantive for the black community ended with this election cycle and I’m forever grateful for it.

5. Senator Obama’s speech in Texas the night of the primaries/caucuses:

“the world is watching”

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rxvSqSXs0io

“Moderator: “With all of the Clinton advisers on your campaign,how are you going to offer a clean break from the past?”

“HRC: “I’d like to hear the answer to this…”

Obama: “Well, Hillary, I look forward to you advising me as well.”