This is the first time in a long time that I’ve taken an interest in the Presidential elections. The other night I went out to pick up Angela from the airport and I was completely transfixed by the events of the Democratic National Convention. From Richardson’s inflamatory speech to the droning of Al Gore, I listened to it on the radio not wanting to miss Obama’s acceptance speech. Luckily, we got home right as it was about to start.

Let me get two things out there real quick before I continue this post:

  • Watching this thing in HD friggin’ ROCKED
  • I can’t stand how NBC would cut away to shots of the crowd or convention goers every 10 seconds. I was about to throw my show at the tv.

So we watched the speech on television and that’s when I realized something that I didn’t think would have an impact on me: I was starting to tear up. It sounds stupid but I actually started getting misty eyed. It wasn’t because of his rhetoric or his promises of ‘change’. It wasn’t that the passion in his voice made me think that, yes, this man CAN make a difference. It was about race.

Honestly, I never thought that I would get choked up about a race issue. Contrary to what some of you may believe I’m not white. Hell, even the people that know me in person forget I’m not white. So for me to hear for the past week that this speech would be given on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, it finally hit me. Right there, in the middle of 80,000 people crammed into a stadium with at least 40 million others watching on television, was a man of color making a serious run to be the President of the United States.

Here is a man with the burden of history and race on his shoulders. And, sad to say, here in the United States, here is a man that is effectively putting his life on the line for something he believes so strongly in. Whether it is true or not is not for me to decide since he is, after all, a politician. But to have the courage, dare I even say the audacity?, to get on stage with his wife and children and proclaim to the 300 million Americans out there that he is willing to go as far as he can and that he will not be apprehensive and back down made me proud.

I was proud of a man of color almost to the point of tears.

A few days earlier I watched Hillary Clinton’s speech and I was impressed at how impassioned she was. I admired her for getting up on the podium, standing at the lectern and rallying her fellow Democrats around Obama, whether or not she wanted to but because she knew it was the right thing to do.

Which is why it also struck me as odd when John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. I honestly couldn’t understand it other than to look at it with a cynical eye and say that he is pandering to the Hillary Clinton supporters. Aren’t they smarter than that? I was a little upset, hoping that McCain would have chosen someone who I would have faith in.

I’ll have to wait and see how the Republican National Convention turns out and hope that John McCain and Sarah Palin can provide just as inspiring speeches as were given at the DNC.