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Renee CK

writer, editor, tweetable http://twitter.com/chicskirt

I'm a fun girl who's on a quest to figure it all out. I'm cynical but living the dream- I'm not sure how that happened exactly. Follow along in my blog for fun, mayhem, and merriment. There's never a dull day! (Or, go download my book!)...

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I'm Engaged to Barack Obama!

we all are

I hope you watched it last night.  I’m sure you did.  How could you not have watched it last night?  Of course I’m talking about the Democratic National Convention.  It was amazing. 

For me, the whole thing started with Al Gore’s speech.  I was in tears as he talked about how different today could be if things would have gone differently 8 years ago.  I’ve been an Al fan since I was studying the environment in ‘92.  One important thing for you to remember that he pointed out is that as many as three (count ‘em 3) Supreme Court Justices will be nominated during the first term of the next president.  Three.  That’s a LONG lasting impact from one president. 

And like they did with Hillary, the DNC showed a bio film about Barack Obama before he came out to speak.  Michelle Obama spoke over photos of her and Barack’s early days.  She said when she met him, she thought about how silly his name is.  They got to know each other better and he told her “we should go out on a date”.  She said she was unsure, but, obviously, decided to go. She said that instead of going to any of the usual places, he took her to the basement of a church where he took his suit jacket off and spoke to those people who had seen their darkest days.  She said he was empassioned and that was “it” from then on.  She was in love.

Isn’t that where we are today?  Up to this point, we’ve been getting to know Barack Obama.  Getting past his silly name, our inability to know more about his past, and not really knowing him.  He’s been asking us to let him take us out, trust him, believe in him.  Granted, he left his jacket on last night, but other than that, he was the empassioned man who speaks in a way that you can’t help but love him.  He got us past his silly name. He spoke about his ability to be the change from the outside instead of trying to rise above what experience has engrained.  It was amazing the way he came out swinging at the questions of what, exactly, he planned to do about our future.  He has roots like many of us; a single mom who struggled with the support of her family to make her children the best they could be, growing up without but having the most important things.  He’s spent his life with the people who are impacted by legislation, not creating the legislation.  We can see so many places where we’re similar.  Yeah. We could spend some time with this guy. And then he sang to us about our future.  He didn’t paint a rosy picture overall, we still have to do our share- “the government doesn’t turn off the TV and make kids do their homework.”  But we can not give up because there is work to do.  He said “this country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.”

And there it was. We were hooked.  We can see that better place- and we want to be there.  It was as if he offered us an engagement ring of promise and asked us if we will bet our future on him.  Oh my God! YES!

I chatted with my friend this morning. She said that beyond being inspired by Obama’s speech, she is patriotic- and she hasn’t been patriotic in years.  Something that has me excited is CNN’s electoral map.  I live in Georgia where it feels so red that any blue vote is instantly folded in and disappears.  But the electoral map doesn’t show Georgia as a red state.  No, it is decidedly a lovely shade of melon, signifying that our 15 electorates are leaning.  They may not lean long after the Republican Convention, but right now that map is melon!

I will be watching the RNC next week. I want to hear what the Republicans have to say.  When people say with near disgust “you’re voting for Obama?” I want to be able to say more than, well yeah, didn’t you see the speech?  I encourage you to do the same.  As I’ve long said about my first marriage, just because I’ve ordered doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Renee