Eugene Robinson just hit the nail square on for me...

[slor]

he told a story of a fellow Black man that said he felt "privileged" to vote for Obama today. It only really sunk in when I heard him tell that story, that tears swelled up in me, and I began to actually cry from excitement and pride and happiness, that today, I was able to vote for someone from my race for the highest office in our land. Please know that I did vote in any way based on race (I was for Edwards initially) I simply chose the smartest person between the two, because we need that right now (as always). For the first time in my life, I dressed nicely for my vote today, without even thinking about it, because it felt like such a special day, a step towards reversing the past 8 years that have made me cry so many times from sadness, 8 years where I felt the country that I love so deeply, was being destroyed from within and would only get worse. And a step towards reversing a lifetime of feeling that certain things would remain impossible for me to live to see. Today I got to vote for hope and change again and for the first time since I have voted (my first vote was for Mondale) I feel real optimism, I feel real momentum of a people ready to finally fight to make an America that can be better for everybody. An America that just might strive to work for a cleaner planet. One that will try to avoid wars for profit. I really feel it. It may be pie in the sky, but part of that is due to the fact that he is Black, and it really says something to me that he was even nominated, let alone that he may very well win. I do feel "privileged" to have made that vote today. And I am privileged to be part of this great country that may finally be ready to live up to its true potential !

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I know that there are millions of people who feel the same way...and not all of them are black.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[wryter2000]

7. I'm one of them

I'm white, but I feel exactly the same way as the OP, right down to the initial support for Edwards. When Edwards dropped out, I picked the more liberal of the two left. I was fine with Obama but not in love. When I learned he'd been a professor of constitutional law, I fell in love, and my happiness and pride have grown every day.

I, too, didn't choose him because of his ethnicity, but I'm so happy we'll have a person of color as president. It's like Santa gave me an extra special present. This is Christmas for me.

[polichick]

2. Your last line says it for me too - I'm so thrilled today!

[Captain Hilts]

3. Eugene R has completely forgotten about the "Draft Powell" movement in the '90s...

Powell's polling numbers showed he could have done it.

[EFerrari]

10. Maybe he wasn't counting corrupt @ssholes. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

12. He was counting black politicians that had a chance at being nominated and becoming Prez...

so, you have to include Powell.

Seems Obama likes "corrupt assholes."

[EFerrari]

13. Powell had no support = no chance in hell. And, no, I don't. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

15. Yes he did. My firm did polling on the topic. nt

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

4. I think there will be very few of us who do not shed a tear or two

today - white, black, yellow or brown.

So many songs of the sixties come to mind today- We Shall Overcome, War is Over If you Want It, The Age of Aquarius - has the Age of Aquarius arrived ?

"It may seem fantastic, but the signs in the heavens point to an extraordinary renewal in the years just ahead. If we recall some recent trends, this prospect doesn't seem so outlandish. It wasn't too long ago that we heard about the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and about the revival of spirit among the new generation. We can still hear the echoes of John Kennedy's call to action and see the vision of Martin Luther King's dream. Before he and his dream were shot down in 1968, he said we as a people "would get to the promised land." The promise seems empty now, yet the planetary cycles support his prophecy. For what we discover when we examine these cycles is compelling evidence that a renaissance and a golden age is right around the corner."


From, an Old White Woman for Obama

[Old and In the Way]

5. I couldn't agree more.

I started out supporting Edwards as well....thank the gods that he didn't do well early in the cycle. I didn't know much about Obama when this campaign started, but I couldn't be happier with our choice for POTUS. He truly is a once in a generation leader. If he governs like he has run his campaign, he'll be one of the great Presidents in the Pantheon. He can lead this country in a new direction that will ultimately benefit the entire world.

[supernova]

6. ((slor))

:D

I'm white and pleased as punch that we finally will have a president who is intelligent, eloquent, and even tempered. We really do need that now; the whole world needs it, instead of Crabby McGramps still fighting the Vietnam War.

[morillon]

8. Every time I look at kids of all colors these days...

...I think how AMAZING it will be for them to grow up with Barack Obama as the president. "Yes, you CAN." That's what this tells them.

And I smile when I think of my mom, who will be 70 in just under two weeks, who grew up in the segregated South and taught in "whites-only" schools when she first started teaching, who has been around racism all her life and opposes it to her very toes, and who has spent the last several weeks phone-banking and hammering in Obama signs on the side of the road in the very rural, very red county where she's lived most of her life.

And you know something about those Obama signs? They multiply! My mom and my sister have been seeing Obama signs that THEY didn't put up!

I don't think I'll sleep at all tonight. :-)

[EFerrari]

9. Omfg, I'm going to cry all night.

Stop it! :spank:

lol

I love Eugene Robinson. I've never listened to him once and been sorry. :hug:

[ellius101]

11. Today all of us have been privileged,,,

Dont think you have to be black to feel the sense of pride us Democrats have in voting for Obama. Heck I'm an ex-Soth African white woman who grew up in Johannesburg during the era of apartheid! I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud to have voted for the man who I believe will be one of the best Presidents this country will ever have!

[BoneDaddy]

14. As much as he speaks to the black community

he has spoken to all of us who do not see race as a barrier for hope, intelligence, rationality, unity and did I say hope?

Barack Obama has energized the black community, no doubt, but he has touched all of us and an Obama victory is a statement from all of us.

[silex]

16. K & R n/t

:patriot: :grouphug:

[barbtries]

17. thank you

but you know, it was always your right - recognized or not. today is a special day.