Obama 2008!

So it's official. Barack Obama has enough delegates to clinch the nomination at the Democratic convention in Denver this July. Congratulations to Senator and Mrs. Obama! As Halle Berry once said when she became the first black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress, this moment is bigger than all of us.

I only wish that my parents could have lived to see the day that a black man would be within reach of becoming President of the United States. My parents were both democrats, my mother in particular was a die-hard Roosevelt/Kennedy democrat. She told me that she cried for days after both Kennedy's were assassinated, and woe be anyone who said anything bad about Franklin D. Roosevelt in our house. She would have adored Bill Clinton. Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, the only Republicans in history worth admiring were Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The rest are just a blight on what the Republican party used to stand for.

I confess that I have had mixed emotions about this election year. As a woman, I was excited at the idea of a woman being nominated to run for President. And I have long admired Hillary Clinton. I don't know that I like her, but I do admire her, have some understanding of what makes her tick, and I think that she would have made an effective President. It has to be hard for her to see a dream die when just a year ago, it looked like it was pretty much a done deal.

But as a woman of color, I had to support Barack Obama. Really, it was like an embarrassment of riches this year in the Democratic Party. Either way, we can't lose. I know that he's only been a Senator for a short time, but John F. Kennedy went from congressman to Senator to President in record time, so you can't fault Barack for that really. And at least he wrote the two books that he published.


I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that come November, I'll be able to say President Obama.