It's been a while since I posted, but I was really picked up last night by Barack Obama's stunning victory in South Carolina. With all the votes in from yesterday's Democratic Primary contest in this diverse state, made of loosely of 50% black people and 50% white people, the scale of Senator Obama's victory cannot be underestimated. The raw numbers:
Barack Obama: 295,091 (55%); Delegates Gained = 26.
Hillary Clinton: 141,128 (27%); Delegates Gained = 14.
John Edwards: 93,552 (18%); Delegates Gained = 8.
Yep, Hillary could have had twice as many votes and still lost! 8 of 10 black voters prefer the message of Barack Obama. And he picked up a quarter of all white votes, with Edwards and Clinton sharing the rest. Another amazing fact from this contest is that Obama won a majority of all the votes cast in the age range 18-64. Yep, working Americans believe in this man, young and old alike. It really represents a cross-generational message for change in the USA.
But it is the articulate nature of this desire for change, so ably personified in Barack's message that is frankly shocking and inspiring after watching 8 long years of banjo playing down on the farm idiot politics from the Bush regime. I keep saying it to everyone I know - look at Barack Obama and listen to him. If you can't see the Robert Kennedy in him, or the JFK in him, then I think you're not looking at the same guy I am. It is certainly evident enough to members of the Kennedy family. Last night, he picked up the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy's daughter.
That endorsement says it all. Part of what is so inspiring about this man's campaign to become the leader of the United States is a very real sense that he could carry the flame of Camelot back into the White House, over 40 years after that flame was so cruelly extinguished in Houston, Texas. This is a chance for Americans to say to themselves and to the wider world that the ideals they voted for in JFK so long ago still stand and mean something important within the psyche of the American Dream. This is a chance for Americans to say, no more lies, no more slash 'n burn politics of the 90's and of this decade. No more Clinton-Bush monarchies, 20 years of two names, two families, running their country is quite enough. No more immoral wars, no more economic mismanagement, no more painful stories of not being able to pay medical bills because you don't earn upwards of $50,000 a year.
South Carolina said it. Barack Obama's saying it. I'm saying it. And a lot of my American friends are saying it: The time for change is now. Barack Obama is an agent of change you can believe in. And all you have to do is hold onto the audacity of hope.
I think and I hope, that America is waking up today to the fierce urgency of now.
For great coverage of this election campaign, I strongly recommend: CNN's Election Center 2008
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