Wow! Saying that Barack Obama is the best orator of our generation does not do him in justice. He is a phenomenon that our country is better for having, regardless of the election outcome.
What I loved most about this speech is that he doesn’t promise to fix everything for us, but to help us believe that we can fix what’s wrong in our country for ourselves. I think that’s called democracy, and he is one politician that seems to really believe in it.
Barack Obama also achieved today what so many thought impossible in the US: a black man was nominated to be president. Even better that he accepted that nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream speech”.
It makes sense that a post-racial candidate like Barack would come from Hawaii, a unique place that prides itself on functional ethnic mixing and tolerance. If all of this doesn’t give us healing and hope, I don’t know what will.
Shortly after his speech, a dear friend emailed me her reaction: “Cried so hard. I realize how thick my wall of cynicism is and how much I do want America to be a better country. Ah…hope can I really believe in it?”
Dear readers, that may be the question of our time.
I listened to all of Obama’s speech on NPR. If you missed this speech that is history in the making, you can still hear on NPR in its entirety.