I CALLED IT 4 YEARS AGO

The Atlantic has some of the best blogs out there, as you may well know. In my mind, Sullivan has the best blog I've seen so far. Period. Ambinder is a great source of information. And last week, I discovered Ta-Nehisi Coates. His blog page is truly excellent, too.

Coates has a post today titled "The moment I went all in..." and links to Obama's victory speech after the South Carolina primary. It got me thinking about the moment that I went all in with Obama.

I live in Illinois and when Obama won the Senatorial primary in 2004, I had barely heard of him. There were two guys running against him (whose names I can no longer remember, nor do I care) and they basically beat the crap out of each other through the whole campaign. Seriously, I woke up the day after the primary and saw some guy named Obama had won the primary. Who?

Who the hell is nominating someone with that name? The Dems must want to get trounced.

You'll recall that Obama was slated to run against a really good-looking Republican named Jack Ryan until he (unfairly, in my mind) was decapitated by the GOP once it was revealed he and his ex-wife liked to get freaky.

I began to follow Obama, but not really -- I mean, I knew I was going to vote for him. When I found out that Kerry had picked him to give the keynote address, I was stunned again. Clearly, my interest in the Illinois Senate race was piddling, but people were talking more and more about this amazing nominee we had. Kerry noticed it, too -- the best decision he made in his entire campaign was to give Obama the keynote speech.

In 2004, I was dating a Republican. We watched Obama's convention speech together. She sneered, and I cried. I told her, "He's going to be the first black president." Naturally, she guffawed. But that was my moment -- the moment I went all in. I feel like I've had his back ever since.



Kerry lost, Obama won. I was so happy about our new Senator that I almost didn't care about Kerry's loss. Obama was the future, I was sure. Should he decide to run in '08, I'd be with him -- no matter what. When he declared, I cheered but didn't think he stood a chance against Hillary.

When he won Iowa, I jumped up and down like a child on a trampoline. He inspired me to volunteer for a cause (his campaign) for the first time in 12 years. And his call for a citizenry that is active in its community has me looking for a place to volunteer once I've unwound from this election season.

Get out and vote today and hold on to your hats. Tonight should be a wild ride.