Make sure to tell others - YES WE CAN!

Though I made the deicision to vote for Obama about a month ago now, I have reached that point where I am ready to shout it from the mountain top.  I have sent the following email to friends and family.  If you haven't done so already, please consider doing the same.  Every vote is gonna' matter in this primary.  Share what you know - communicate that feeling you have.  Feel free to borrow liberally or put it in your own words and your own way.  But make sure to tell others - YES WE CAN!

I wanted to share some (not-so) brief thoughts with you all on this current Democratic Presidential Primary.  I know a number of you, like me, will be casting a vote on Super Tuesday next week and that vote will matter.  A lot!  Whether you vote next Tuesday or a little later on, I hope you will strongly consider voting for Barack Obama.

As many of you know, I spent a fair amount of time the last go-around working for Howard Dean's candidacy.  Although we didn't win in the end, I am convinced that campaign was a turning point for both the Democratic Party and the country.  His campaign was a call to action to citizens all across America.  Something was rotten in Washington and only those of us outside of Washington were going to be able to do anything about it.  I think that campaign has fundamentally changed the way many ordinary citizens interact with politics and has changed the way many politicians interact with us.  

But that turned out to only be a first step.  

I see in Barack Obama's campaign the next step in this journey to reclaim our government and redefine government's mission from being a force to maintain the status quo for a select few to a force that can once again concern itself with the common good.  I believe that was Howard Dean's most poignant message and I believe it is the essential call of Barack Obama's campaign as well.  

I was amazed all last summer and fall to hear stories of thousands and even tens of thousands of people show up to see Barack Obama speak.  I thought we were a big deal during the Dean campaign when we could get a few thousand out to a rally, but this was a whole other level.  Though it is a diverse audience that Obama draws, it is undeniably powerful to see the way young people are inspired by his campaign.  

As part of a generation that was mostly apathetic to politics and civic engagement, it is almost a relief to see a re-awakening among young Americans.  

And if the first few primary states are any indication, that wave of engagement has translated into votes.  Record turnouts for the Democratic primaries have occurred in every state.  And make no mistake - that turnout is because of Barack.  In the deeply Republican state of South Carolina, Obama's vote total alone bested the combined totals of John McCain and Mike Huckabee - the top two vote-getters on the Republican side.

I am impressed with Obama's background.  The son of a single mother, Obama went on to obtain a law degree at Harvard serving as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.  He could have gone anywhere, but he went to the south side of Chicago to work as a community activist and a civil rights attorney.  He also taught law at the University of Chicago.  He joined the Illinois State Senate - besting a highly entrenched and powerful Chicago Democratic political machine to obtain his seat (hints of things to come, eh?).  He served there for eight years before becoming a US Senator.  Looking through his policy pages on his website, I am thoroughly satisfied with his stance on the issues and even delighted to read some of his ideas on improving government transparency to reduce the rampant corruption that prevents this government from representing anyone but a few entrenched corporate interests.

Make no mistake, this is a race about the past versus the future.  

While I would love the idea of finally having a woman as President, try as I might, I could not bring myself to support Hillary Clinton.  She is tied to an old way of Democratic insider politics that has held this party back.  Her unapologetic connections to corporate lobbyists combined with her dangerously hawkish positions on Iraq and now Iran convince me that, while she would certainly be better than George W. Bush or any other Republican, another Clinton presidency would be a wasted opportunity to transform a nation that is poised to re-awaken and tackle the tremendous challenges that lie ahead.  

But, my opposition to Clinton has intensified during the course of this campaign.  From her insistence on surrounding herself with people who have failed us one too many times in the past (Terry McAuliffe, Mark Penn, to name a few...), to the style in which she and her team have conducted themselves:

-attempting to block college students from voting in Iowa

- attempting to block at-large caucus sites in Nevada that were agreed on almost a year ago only after learning she wouldn't get the casino-workers' union endorsement

- the flat out disgusting manner in which Bill Clinton has risked dividing this party and country along racial lines leading up to South Carolina (boy, if anyone had any doubts about their views on Bill Clinton, he pretty much cemented that home this past week)

- after agreeing with the national party and other candidates to ignore the results of Michigan and Florida early in 2007 because the state parties flat out broke the rules, she is now fighting to make those delegates count because she won Michigan (the only candidate to put her name on the ballot, though) and expects to win Florida

This is just a partial list of things that have upset me and many others this past month.  There is little doubt that Senator Edward Kennedy changed his mind about remaining neutral in this race to throwing his full-throated endorsement to Barack Obama yesterday because of the tactics of the Clinton campaign lately.  It is dividing the party during a time when this country is starving for strong Democratic leadership to take on the problems that the Bush administration has ignored (and mostly caused) during the last 7 years.

Finally, I return to my opening point about Barack Obama.  There is something special going on here with his campaign that I have never seen before in my 37 years.  I read accounts of those who were around in the 60's saying it reminds them of another time where people were a little less cynical and little more hopeful.  

This is best summed up in an OpEd in the NYTimes this past Sunday from Caroline Kennedy, JFK's daughter.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president ­ not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

And if you haven't seen Barack Obama speak, take 5 minutes and watch him.  It is like nothing I've heard a politician do in my short lifetime.

(This is a clip from his speech in New Hampshire after he lost the primary there... amazing I think.)

Thank you for reading this far.  Please feel free to share any comments or feel free to pass this along to anyone you know.  And please consider a vote for Barack Obama in your upcoming primary.

TheC