Why Barack is Winning

Hillary was supposed to be "the anointed one". As the single most well-known person running for President, and a "woman who actually has a shot", she was considered a shoe-in. It didn't matter what her platform was; nothing could stop her.

Nothing except a newbie Senator from Illinois.

She came prepared with 35 years of experience in how to manipulate the system. She was a beloved First Lady, a Champion of the people, and a well-respected leader. She was the one who was "ready from Day One".

She was never ready for this.

Mike Lupica wrote in today's New York Daily News: "Barack Obama has been better organized, raised more money, won more states, gained more delegates and had a better strategy than Clinton from the start."

He came from behind, taking Iowa by storm with nothing but big dreams, big ideas, and hope - hope that after seven years under a political dictatorship whose polarizing core philosophy can be summed up as 'either you're with me, or you're a terrorist', America might at last be ready to end the partisan feud that has lobotomized us for several decades now.

He spoke of ending the rivalry that has become more important to the political process than the purpose for which it was designed: to govern this nation. In a rally on April 18^th, he made the point crystal clear by stating that our so-called leaders have devolved into bickering children, competing in an arena where score is kept based on how many blows one can land on one's opponent, rather than measured by how many problems get solved.

Where Hillary is a master of the political game, ready for anything, she never dreamed that she'd be up against an opponent who won't engage her. He plays by his own rules, engaging the people instead, spreading his message of Change. In the game of politics, Hillary is unbeatable. But Barack Obama isn't playing politics; his kind of Change is a change in the nature of the game; his message is that it's well past time to put an end to it.

Barack bet right. We are sick of it. We're sick of the fighting, we're sick of the pointless name-calling, we're sick of the rhetoric, we're sick of the extremism on both sides, and we're sick of watching our country be torn apart while our "leaders" are to too busy maneuvering for position to bother with the actual leading.

And now it's come down to the wire. People still know Hillary better, and people do trust her. Her attacks have cost Obama dearly. To hear her tell it, it is he who is the child, full of nothing more than wishful thinking.

But people are hearing Obama too. As the "manufactured" controversies have spread, people have been hearing him more and more. And what they hear tells them this is a man with a Dream. They wonder, in the face of actual thought and powerful ideas, what does a pin matter? They ask, is this really the best his opponents can do?

The most damning thing they've been able to come up with yet is his affiliation with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Is that it? He knows a person who is a racist?

Of course, this is supposed to be a big deal. The fact that McCain is trying to pander to the white supremacist "conservative base" is expected, even if he has to sell out his principles to do it. After all, being President is all about doing what you think isn't best, right?

The Clintons are also known for their affiliation with several prominent racists - Jessie Jackson, for example.

But Obama is supposed to be better than that, see. The fact that he is affiliated with an angry bigot is supposed to be significant, while the ties the other candidates have with hate-mongering lunatics is just general practice. Nothing to see there, folks.

Really, now, is there not one thing of actual substance that can be held up against Obama? Is there not one example of what he himself believes that contradicts his "unrealistic" platform of reasonable ideas?

Who does he think he is, anyway? Showing up at Hillary's party, spouting off with gross ideology like "we deserve better" and "we can do better" - the Audacity!

But while the other candidates try to convince the voters that Barack's dreams are naive, that the system will never allow America to be United again, that, even if elected, he cannot possibly succeed, the people answer them back.

Their response is simple, and clear. It says that despite all that has befallen us in the last seven years, the last 40 years, and all the way back to that day that our last truly great leader was shot in Dallas, we still have hope for the future. We still believe, because we know what the heart and soul of the greatest nation ever established on this Earth is made of.

On September 11^th, 2001, this nation forgot about Red and Blue. We were filled with white-hot anger.

Today, Barack tells us that we can all be joined again, but this time in a bond of brotherhood. We can once more, and for all time, put away the color-coded thinking that has been the hallmark of American politics for half a century. We can stop following leaders who do nothing more than stand in place, singing and dancing for our amusement, and start leading ourselves, just as we did under that last great leader.

And to all those who tell us that he is wrong, that we can never be that way again, be they candidates for the presidency or other citizens who have given in to the despair and bitterness that comes from being crushed under the weight of the lame giant of politics, we answer with three simple words: "Yes. We. Can."

Because we know that the willful spirit of America today is the same as it has always been from the first settlers searching for a new life, and freedom in a land that they would build. It is the same drive that compels us to protect that freedom, and to keep building, no matter how many hands strive to keep us down. That spirit is the same force that directs us in all of our lives: it is the audacity to hope.