Proud? Well, yeah.

In 2004 I saw as many of us did, Obama's speech at the Democratic convention. In that terribly dark year, when the Rove/Cheney administration squeaked to a re-election that was only slightly less suspect than the blatantly fraudulent election of 2000, I was encouraged and inspired by Obama's speech and saddened that he wasn't running instead of Kerry. Well. Here we are. In 2006 we saw the pendulum swinging back away from total piggishness. And today we saw it swing back even further.

This year, I have heard people, some of my friends in fact, saying there's no way America will elect a black man president. I always answered the same way. I'd ask, why do you say that? Why not instead work to make that statement a thing of the past? Why not send a few bucks to the Obama campaign, or to MoveOn, or make some phone calls for the campaign? As Obama said in his speech today, to the cynics, the ground has shifted under your feet.

Mrs. Obama took some flak in the campaign, for saying she was proud to be American for the first time. I knew what she meant. It sounded reasonable to me. And I have no illusions that America has suddenly changed to a force for good in the world, that justice will prevail, that we'll do the right thing and get out of Iraq in the least harmful way, that we'll stop being an idiot bully state. That all remains to be seen. Or that we'll socialize medicine like any civilized country, or restructure our corporate laws so putting profit above all other concerns is no longer the law of the land. That too remains to be seen. But today, Bush got on that helicopter, and flew away for the last time. And the guy I thought should be president, four years ago, when it seemed like an unlikely dream, just took the office. And I think that's good. I'm proud to have helped, in some little way, to make it happen, as so many of us did. It's our victory, and it's our opportunity. Let's make the most of it.