What was "The Moment" for you in this campaign?

[CantGetFooledAgain]

I mean, the specific moment, if any, where you knew deep down that Obama had what it would take, and that he was going all the way.

I know mine, and in hindsight it's a pretty obvious one, so I won't state it until someone else hopefully identifies the same moment.

I'm just interested in finding out if anyone else had such an epiphany over this long campaign season, and what it was for them.

[saltpoint]

1. I thought the speech in Philadelphia kicked cosmic butt.

In the wake of mindless criticism over Rev. Wright, Obama conducted himself like a visionary statesman.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

3. That was damn good.

Thanks for refreshing my memory, it seems so long ago! But not the single event that I'm thinking of.

[truedelphi]

14. Pls share that moment with me too.

I think he went on to stay true to himself - it served him well at the beginning of the Wright charges, and did well for him all of the rest of the way.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

17. See post #16

[RoyGBiv]

2. The FISA vote ...

Yes, I know that sounds bizarre, and I don't want to dredge all *that* up again, so I'll be ignoring the subject itself.

But, it wasn't his vote. It was how he and his campaign handled it and three other distinct controversies that erupted at the same time.

When I saw that, I stepped back for a moment and really looked at it as objectively as I could, I think I saw truly for the first time how good he is at this game called politics. That is, I realized he had what it takes to win.

Put another way, he'd won the war with Hillary, and several events in rapid succession afterward showed me clearly that this was not mere chance or luck.

I took that moment to post a thread about Obama's genius because that's when I truly came to understand its depth.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

5. I was disappointed in that vote

Like so many of us. We want Obama to uphold all of our progressive ideals, and are destined, I fear, to be disappointed again and again as he makes decisions based at least partly on politics (as he must).

I do remember thinking that, the first thing he has to do, is win. That is a necessary condition for anything else to happen. So, I grudgingly admitted to myself that the FISA position was inevitable.

[RoyGBiv]

12. The thing about it ...

The thing was, objectively, it was a no-win situation for him.

The great leaders have all picked their battles. Lincoln, who is the person that popped to mind when I analyzed all that, was the person that came to mind, and I mentioned it repeatedly at the time.

Lincoln got up before God and everyone during his campaign and repeatedly promised he would not seek to touch slavery where it was legal. Then he engaged in an even harsher rhetorical flourish that angered abolitionists and emancipationists to their very core when he said, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it."

He, too, was faced with a no-win situation with that issue.

As he said the latter, he was already developing the justification for what became the Emancipation Proclamation.

He picked his battle, and in the end, he did more than he ever could have done as President had he taken the tone of someone like Horace Greeley.

OnEdit: I'll just add my standard disclaimer here. I'm not making a direct comparison. I'm comparing types of leadership and manners of working the political system. I don't know what Obama will do. I think I know many things he wants to do and suspect others. Whatever the case, he picked the battles he needed to fight to get into a position where he could do anything at all.

[blowback]

4. the convention speech

and lines like this one:

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."

[CantGetFooledAgain]

7. Yes, he was brilliant at the convention.

And all of his major speeches brought down the house in one way or another. But there was still this one famous moment that sticks in my mind, and still gives me a thrill when I think about it.

[Gregorian]

6. When Keith Olbermann added California to the electoral votes and came up with 270.

It was at that moment that the race was over.


Sheesh, I can see you aren't talking about election night. I don't do bets. I don't predict, except to just blab. And often I'm right. I predicted a monster landslide. But the reality of the election was at that moment for me, and not one second sooner. I don't have much faith in the majority of people and their lack of intelligence thereof, I'm sad to say.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

11. Well, sure

And how great that Keith got to make the call. (I wonder if that was something that was decided earlier, i.e. who gets to announce the big projection?).

For me, the moment was much earlier.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. When Obama gave The Speech in Philadelphia about race relations in America

"Last Tuesday for forty minutes, a politician talked to the American people about race like they were adults." -- Jon Stewart

I had already settled on Obama long before then, but that reinforced my view like nothing else.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. The crash, he exuded calm

while his opponent was all over the map

[alittlelark]

10. When he pointed out that McCain was "out of touch'

during the financial meltdown.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. When I realized that Obama had taken Florida! OH MY GOD! nt

[Kind of Blue]

15. When he said McCain was erratic.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

16. For me, and it may seem trivial to some...

...was when he took the stage to accept the nomination, and he met Michelle on the stage, and they had the infamous "fist bump". It was at the same time an expression of love and partnership between husband and wife; and an expression of supreme yet humble confidence, like "go get 'em".

Coming so close on the heels of all of the primary drama, it was a great moment for me, marking the transition between the primary and the general . And it was that moment where I for the first time knew that this man was going all the way.

Not to say of course, that I didn't experience almost daily anxiety from that day forward that something was going to come along and screw it all up. But everything worked out, and I keep coming back to that fist bump in front of those thousands of cheering people.

[Cabcere]

18. For me, it was getting to watch him speak at a rally.

I already knew I was going to vote for him, but up until that point, I was sort of lukewarm about it. Sure, I liked him, liked his ideas, but wasn't super-excited about his chances - eight years of the Bush administration had taught me not to believe, not to trust, not to hope. But sitting there in the gym with my mom and hundreds of others, watching him on one of the big screens they had set up in the overflow areas...I began to think that maybe, just maybe, he could do it. And he did. Last night I was almost numb watching the results come in - I wanted to cheer and celebrate when CNN projected that Obama would be the next President, but I just couldn't. I kept on telling myself that nothing was set in stone, this election could be stolen too, mistakes could be made...I'm still having trouble believing that all this is truly real. :) Bush has been president for more than a third of my entire life, and I'm having trouble adjusting to the idea that maybe things can be different. But last night my dreams were about hope and progress, rather than the scenes of war, disaster, and despair that have plagued my sleep since last February. It's not going to be an easy road by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm beginning to believe that maybe things are starting to head in the right direction. :hi: Peace.

[EC]

19. I've always liked him from the 90's on ...

I used to read about him in the Sun-Times then. I knew he would be President someday during the 2004 Convention Speech...I even called my daughter during the speech and told her "This man is going to be President some day." no doubts...I knew he was a tough politician and that speech was part of a stump speech he used to give in Illinois, but jazzed up with soul and cadence, it was moving and was the type that would lead people...

[Flabbergasted]

22. I've intuitively felt for months he would win. nt

[CantGetFooledAgain]

23. I don't know if you listen to Stephanie Miller...

But she asserts that, after hearing the 2004 convention speech, she knew that this man would be President. I'm sure many others feel the same way.

For my "moment" see post #16.

[alfredo]

20. Iowa.

I was still in the Hillary camp.

[cynatnite]

21. March 18, 2008...I knew then...

He did a speech on race and watching it I knew I was looking at the next president of the US. It was so eloquent, touching and it cut to the heart of race in this country. No else could have done it.

That's how I knew he would win.

[tblue]

24. I had no doubt he would get the most votes, I just was not at all sure enough would be counted.

I bawled when they declared him the winner. I never trusted our election process until I heard that McC had called to congratulate Barack.

When he said "we as a people" in his speech last night, I thought I would lose my mind!

[CantGetFooledAgain]

26. I never trusted our election process either. And I still don't.

This election wasn't quite close enough to steal. Next time, we may not be so lucky.

Our election infrastructure is a disgrace. It is laughably insecure.

I would love to see Obama appoint a team of information systems specialists to design a national election system from the ground up, and implement it partially by 2010, and fully by 2012.

I do not want to have to spend another election worrying about all the ways it could be stolen.

[tblue]

27. Me neither. We should have done this when we got control of Congress in '06.

This has to be a top priority well BEFORE the midterm.

[truedelphi]

28. Boy do we share the same brain or what??

I drove everyone around me a bit batty about the constant rumbling inside my head that like Chris Rock said "You think just because a black man gets the most votes they'll let him be PResident?"

I mean, the more vote strategy didn't work for Kerry and it didn't work for Gore...

And they were white boys!!

[jakefrep]

25. The night of the New Hampshire primary

I was ready to run through a brick wall for him after his speech that night.

[Kip Humphrey]

29. The Ed Bradley 60 Minutes interview with Barak in the '80s.

[Obamarama]

30. After hearing him give his address at the 2004 Dem Convention in Boston....

I immediately started pinning my hopes on him as a future president who appeared to have what it takes to be not only president, but a great president.

Little did I know it would be 4 years later. Dreams do sometimes come true.