Yesterday at exactly 10:14 in the evening, Barack Obama, in front of nearly 80,000 people, formally accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Remarkable.
Exactly 45 years ago on the same date, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired a nation, people, and generations when he stood overlooking Lincoln Memorial and said "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation" and he shared his dreams:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
It is not hyperbole to say that this week and the events that took place in Denver, Colorado, has been a historic and momentous one. However Dr King's words continue to ring true today as he cautioned that "This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."
Tonight we celebrate, but the urgency and the fight continues. We will not be satisfied!
Even while McCain acknowledged the seminal significance of the moment in his congratulatory message to Obama, McCain's campaign distributed a statement, as Obama still stood on stage and fireworks exploded in the sky, with the following (mis)interpretation of the evening:
Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain..
That did not take long.
What I do know is that America has witnessed over the past eight years is our precipitous decline, thanks to a misleading administration and party. During this same period McCain's record shows that he voted with Bush "90 percent of the time." If that's the sort of experience and leadership the Republican nominee is offering, then...thanks but no thanks Senator McCain.
