In a speech that will be taught in American History classes for centuries to come, Senator Barack Obama laid out in specific detail how his vision of change will transform the direction that American society is moving. Speaking directly to hundreds of millions of television viewers around the globe, Obama forcefully proclaimed that after eight years of destructive politics there is nothing left to say but “Enough”.

In a call to arms he challenged his opponent Senator John McCain to defend his self-proclaimed identity as a maverick. Obama used simple logic to explain what it would mean to truly be a political maverick in the Senate, and why voting for 90% of Bush Administration policies violates the definition of a maverick, and violates the very notion of what it means to be an independent thinker.

However, without violating his own campaign call to transcend bipartisan politics, Obama also emphasized that there is no place in this election to accuse either candidate of loving their country more than another, or of being more patriotic than another. He instead looked directly into the camera, reminding Americans that we all love this country regardless of our party affiliations. He reminded us that outside of the competitive games of intellectual one upmanship there is no such thing as a Liberal or a Conservative. There is no such thing as a Democrat or a Republican. There are only Americans who love their country; though varied are the expressions of that love of State.

Most importantly, Barack Obama reminded us that what his nay-sayers have failed to see is that this election, and his meteoric rise to the pinnacle of American and world politics, has never been about him.

It has instead been about an entire People’s call for change. It has been about a People’s frustration that a two-term president and his administration have spent the seven years following the worst attacks on American soil squandering tax payers dollars by increasing dependence on an unrenewable energy that is provided by countries that foster the very ideology that inspired those very attacks.

It has been about a People’s frustration that their leaders, their greatest and most prominent representatives, have spent the last seven years following the worst attacks on American soil acting more as models of stubborn resistance than as ambassadors of change. In a democracy, calls for change can only go denied for so long. Barack Obama didn’t create the movement for change, he is just its most prominent ambassador.

In this coming election the choice is not between Barack Obama and John McCain. The choice isn’t even between Liberal and Conservative, or Republican and Democrat. No, this election we vote for either Change or Stagnation.

And remember, no matter what happens come November 2008, it won’t be long before you will be old and grey, and fondly recalling to your grandchildren how you were witness to history, and the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and life’s work.

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