things will go your way, hold on for one more day

Midterm elections tomorrow.

Most people are predicting the Democrats gaining control of the House (they need at least 15 seats), and some are also optimistic about a gain in the Senate (Dems need at least 6 seats).

That's all well and exciting, but I'm mostly pumped about the fact that after tomorrow, people will begin to announce their intentions to run for the Presidency in 2008.

I read Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father, this past summer, and I was shocked at how honest he was. Granted, he wrote it in 1994, a full 10 years before he was elected to the Senate. However, in subscribing to his podcast recently and almost finishing The Audacity of Hope, his second book, I am fully on the Obama bandwagon. In fact, I feel like I'm driving it because I'm so pumped.

I know he's young... I know he's inexperienced... but he's such a breath of fresh air. He seeing listening to both side as important and champions the art of compromise. Some people are suggesting that doing those things will make him appear weak, but I think the average American (if there is such a thing) won't see it that way. And I in fact, think it's genious. Everyone whose taken an entry-level political science course knows that to win, you must run against the predecessor. By actually taking others' opinions and intelligence into account, and perhaps considering them fully, Barack is not necessarily changing his own positions, but he is respecting the art of a democracy. And he's also posing himself to run as a candidate that is nearly the opposite of what we're used to in the Bush White House.

His father is Kenyan. His mother is from Kansas. He grew up in Hawaii and spent a couple years in India when his mother remarried.

And when I see him speak in campaigning for Democratic candidates, whether live on C-SPAN or on YouTube, when I read what he has written, and when I listen to his podcast... I cry because of the hope that he has for America. I cry because his ideas and policies are thoughtful, and I believe prayerfully considered. I cry because this is a candidate that I could actually be excited about.

I know it's premature... but if he runs and is given a chance by winning the Democratic primaries...

I think it's meant to be that my first semester teaching history may be a turning point in American history, where we first elect a Black president and start to see real, positive change in all of our lives.