Hope Becomes Action

Tonight was the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Tonight Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination for President of the United States of America.

It was a wonderful convention and a wonderful night. 84,000 people gathered from all over the country and the world to see history made. On the 45th anniversary of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, Barack Obama stood on another mountaintop and clearly spelled out his vision for America. It was not the same excited, crackling speech he had delivered four years earlier in Boston, in his first heart stopping moment on a national stage. That speech electrified the audience, captured our imagination, fanned the dying embers of hope and catapulted Barack Obama to prominence. That younger man of 2004 said what needed to be said in that moment.

Tonight, the same man, but a man who has grown along the journey of this campaign, spoke to the crowd at Mile High Stadium and to those of us watching and listening at home, as the next Commander in Chief, as the next President of the United States. He spoke with passion, clarity and wisdom. He gave us facts and figures. He shined a bright light on the difference between an Obama - Biden administration and four more years of the same old Bush - Cheney administration, reincarnated under John McCain. He still brought the people to their feet, but this time ready to move forward, together, toward a clear goal.

Barack Obama inspires us and moves us to action, yes. But Barack Obama can and will lead us out of the darkness of the last eight years. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with Congress and the citizens of the United States to get this country back on the right track, back to our democratic roots and our constitutional core.