"This is our moment...This is our time!"

Barack Obama is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

I was a Clinton fan and I still am, though less so. After the years of Republican tactics I was hoping for a different campaign from Hillary but she chose her associates and acquiesced to the campaign they ran for her. By all reckoning Hillary Clinton should have been the next President. I think she succumbed to nonexistent sniper fire, her duplicity on Nafta, and the Iraq war vote, to be frank.

The turning point for me was the Clinton campaign's use of the detested tactics of Karl Rove when she was busted by the Canadians for her NAFTA stance and tried to blame it on the Obama campaign. I'm tired of that type of tactic in a candidate and certainly in my President. It was unlike the Hillary I thought I knew, but there it was. I hear charges of sexism being the cause for Clinton's failure but that isn't it. Ultimately, as much as so many people wanted her to, she could not rise above the nagging suspicions that her actions would, from time to time, punctuate.

It's now time to turn away from the divisiveness of this Primary contest. Sexism did not cause Hillary to lose... And, Racism did not and will not keep Obama from winning

The Primary campaign is a test of operations. Obama had the team and the organization and the game plan to win. He ran a positive campaign, praising his opponents at every turn, even while challenging their policy differences, and Even while they belittled the staggering accomplishments of his life in public service.

The Presidency is bigger than any one human. It is the ability to build and lead an organization that is actually the ability we need in our President. The magnitude of the coming task of the next president will require exactly the kind of leadership that Obama has shown in the management of his campaign team. Leadership ability developed and honed as a community activist in Chicago. Quality leadership can only come from a quality person.

The quality of the person we have chosen as the Democratic nominee is best illustrated by something Florida Congressman Wexler said as he addressed his own constituents who had voted in the majority for Hillary Clinton. He was asked...

"Could you please tell us more specifically why you chose Obama over Hillary?" ( Lots of "Yeahs!" )

Congressman Wexler:

"I support Barack Obama because he showed better judgment on the Iraq War, because he has remained more forcefully against it. I support him because of his stand on ethics reform, and commitment to engaging our enemies. I support him because he speaks truth to power.

He spoke in front of a largely Cuban-American organization in Miami. Everyone has told this organization the same thing for 40 years. 'We're going to continue the embargo against Cuba, no monetary remittances there, no anything.' Whether or not it works, that's all any politician dares to say. Obama suggested to them we engage with Raul Castro, and take steps towards ending the embargo.

Obama told a crowd in Detroit that we should increase fuel efficiency standards, and he told members of Martin Luther King's church in Atlanta that we all share some of the blame for some of the race problems in America today."

The entire exchange is here.

I noticed one line that stood out in Barack Obama's speech tonight.

...This is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past and bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

Peace,

Steve