Damn we're in a festive mood here as we exult in our candidate's presumptive victory in the Democratic Primaries of the 2008 Presidential Election! Rahm Emanuel himself has now said it. The superdelegates are going to just start piling on as it becomes evident that Obama has won.

At the risk of sounding "hopeful" (what a terrible thing to be!), what really excites me is the hope that Obama really does mean what he says about practicing politics in an entirely different way. I think it's a message that resonates throughout the American public. I hope we have a series of debates between him and McCain. I think it would be so amazing to see them -- totally opposite world views when it comes to Iraq. It will be interesting to see if McCain can keep his temper in check. They would each have to state their claim as strongly as they could. I can't think of anyone better qualified to do that than Barack.

So that is my hope for Obama. I know that's an awful lot of hope to lay one on man. Doing that has a way of being its own undoing. But that's part of what I love about Obama: it never has been about one man. Obama is the cresting wave of a movement, a crashing tsunami of a smart, 21st century mediatory approach to human conflict that is capable of regaining America's respect in the world community -- not to mention our national self-respect, after the abominations of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

I realize that the superlative of that sentence gets conservatives going, and suddenly there's a backlash, and you wish you'd never said anything. But what I like about Obama is that he is about trying to prevent the backlash by trying to understand each other in the first place. Unfortunately, he did get a little down in the mud as he got a little winded fending off that pit bull ... (Sorry, Hillary supporters!). But exhasuting as it's been, there's no doubt it's made him a better candidate.

Oh, and also, I strongly support Russ Warner here in our district (Monrovia - Pasadena - Duarte and up in the hills too, I think La Canada, La Crescenta, etc). He just sent out a great mailer in which his 20-something year old son, in full military dress and home after 18 months in Iraq, says he called his dad from Iraq to ask him to run, so that thousands of more soldiers wouldn't have to perish in the same manner he'd seen so many of his friends do already.

Pretty strong stuff for a local fight in a Republican majority district. It's exciting to see our long-held views expressed so strongly and sincerely. It's as if all the values we've seen rejected outright for 7 long ignored years, are finally beginning to emerge, stronger than ever. It literally feels like a lifting of oppression.

Some people are saying Obama may be the next RFK. I think he may be greater.

- daDA

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Go Obama!
www.barackobama.com
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