Bones it.

If most successful presidential candidates = 10

and if one’s being African-American is a political detriment to the equivalent of about -5,

Then Obama is about a 15.

THAT’S what’s most historic to me: we got ourselves a 15!

Time, as you say, to get to work…

And, oh, yes, great day for our nation, and great picture of Obama & Michelle.

Description: Hezbollah-style.

Yesterday was the first good day for my country in a long time. It felt GOOD.

did anyone catch the line from McCain’s speech where he said, “that’s why I support BIG BUSINESS, and not the small family farmer”

perhaps i wasn’t paying enough attention, or maybe Mr. McCain just flubbed his lines, but SOMEBODY has to create a PAC commercial with that quote front and center.

Consider the caliber of the nominee. Sixteen months under the 24/7 news microscope and Obama still emerges as breathtakingly honest, a candidate who speaks to the American people as though they’re adults, a nuanced and cultivated mind in the service of the commonweal, a natural “executive personality” whose bid for the White House seems no less than destiny fulfilled. In a heretofore all-white arena, a black person needs the forbearance of a saint to allay all the little xenophobic fears of whites (think Jackie Robinson, Marian Anderson), and I say Obama is close to one only because I don’t want to be accused of hyperbole in saying he IS one. But his gracious and generous demeanor seems to be a natural part of him, not an ideologically-driven code of conduct.

Scrutinizing him through print and television over these past months inclines me to use the word “awesome.” Even Gore would have had peevish moments, petty episodes. Kennedy never had such scrutiny.

If Americans can distinguish between diamonds and sludge (and I want to be convinced that, this time, we can), we’re going to be very lucky in November. Individuals like Obama enter the political sphere only very, very rarely. And maybe he is a singularity, transformational, as they say.

I used to think Nelson Mandela as the tallest man on the planet. The tests of this primary may not be comparable to years in a South African prison, but I’m prepared to revisit that judgment in the future; Obama may be his equal.

DAMN, am I PROUD to be an American today! My mother missed seeing this by less than six months, though; hopefully, whereever she is, she knows about it.

Period.

And he’s going to wipe the floor with McCain.

I predict a long post on No Quarter saying that this picture prooooooves Obama hits his wife. Because she got caught on tape saying “Whitey.”