Obama: a president who will put Barney Smith Before Smith Barney

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Obama is Kenyan for "Living the Dream!" Of course that's not true, but wouldn't it be cool if it was? If he wins and is a success it may mean that in English. Obama = Living the Dream or a Person Who Lives the Dream.
"Hey kid you're really good on that guitar, what do you plan to do with it?"
"I plan on being an Obama." One day in the future, all little kids, no matter their color will want to be an Obama.

Well for some of us who have been waiting for a gale of fresh air to blow through Washington and our nation, we're being Obamas, living our dreams. It's 1:AM Sunday morning and I just finished watching the last night of the Democratic Convention on Tivo. I saw that all three networks were only covering the last hour, but I wanted to experience the whole night so I taped the PBS version which was all three hours, and I'm glad I did.

What a show. It started out with some lower level Democrats making speeches, going up the line to a rising star, Gov. Tim Kaine out of Virginia and then the always spirited Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. Discussing John McCain's change in so many policies, Richardson said, "John McCain may pay hundreds of dollars for his shoes, but if he becomes president, this nation will pay for his flip flops."

Stevie Wonder sang one forgettable song (the only part of the night that I fast forwarded) and then did "Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours)", which lit the crowd up. What happened to Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen? Weren't they supposed to come on and sing a song for Obama? Didn't matter, but how cool would it have been for the two of them to just come out and introduce him to the crowd, instead of the senior senator from Illinois.

Al Gore came out and gave a funny and pointed speech and really revved the crowd up with his global warming section. If this man could have shown this much personality back in 2000, he would have been president, hanging chads or not. Then a brilliant move was to introduce a group of 5 ordinary citizens from across the country who have been hurt some way by the policies of Bush and Cheney. Two of them were former Republicans who even voted for the current member of the White House. The second person was a lady from I believe Kansas who quoted Einstein as saying, "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." Well since McCain plans on continuing Bush's current policies, "a vote for McCain is insane."

But the best of the group was a guy named Barney Smith from Indiana. He lost his job after 31 years at the local plant, where the company outsourced it to another country. A former Republican, he says “I want a president who will put Barney Smith Before Smith Barney.” What a shockingly great line. It floored the convention's football stadium and got me to clapping and laughing hard.

Then came Obama's speech which despite its 47 minute running time was actually concise and had a rhythm and flow of its own. Like a great guitar solo you could sense its beginning, middle and end. He touched on every major topic of the last 8 years and the demise of our country, but gave specifics on how he intends to bring us back up on top. Spending more, way more to encourage good people to become teachers, was one nice touch, another was a promise of a college education for any young person who commits to doing some national service for the country whether in the military or some other capacity. Looking 10 years into the future ala JFK with the moon landing, to say we will end our dependence on foreign oil. When his speech ended, I had laughed a little, and cried a little, especially when he spoke about the people in this country who don't understand Obama's popularity, "What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you."

And that's basically true. I didn't turn to Obama because he said something new and refreshing. I liked him because he was saying what I was feeling for several years.

When the speech was over and the fireworks and confetti were being blown off, Barack's wife and daughters stood on the stage watching the festivities and I thought, what a beautiful young family. Very Kennedyesque. One black female educator was on Imus in the Morning the other day and she said that it would be wonderful if Michelle Obama got pregnant after they took over the White House. Like John John, perhaps a young Barack born at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Learned one thing about the Kennedy election in 1960, from one of the 5 expert panelists on PBS. The man said that JFK also had a big outdoor event for the final night of his convention at the Los Angeles Coliseum. But he was having trouble finishing up his speech before the television cameras went off the air, so he was told to speed it up and rush through it. He did this in the face of some strong winds that night and looked less than ordinary for the TV audience. When Nixon saw this performance, he didn't know the aspects behind it and attributed all of it to JFK's oratory skills. Based on this, he thought he could take JFK in a televised debate and announced he wanted to challenge Kennedy. As we all know, Nixon came across very badly on TV during those debates and lost the election because of it.

Well, whatever your political leanings, this was one night of political TV that was the opposite of boring, in fact it felt like a great rock concert, one you almost didn't want to end.

The Freditor