Reason #1 To Elect Barack Obama: His Inspiring Vision

First of all, Barack brings us hope. His mesmerizing vision and charisma have motivated me and millions of others to believe again – in ourselves, in our leaders, in our future and potential as a people, and perhaps most importantly, in our ability to take back our nation from the war-makers, the fear-mongers, and the religious zealots. He has inspired us to believe that we can re-light our nation’s bright lamp, and return it to the mantle once again as the world’s beacon of freedom and prosperity.

Barack’s opponents like to criticize his charisma as a speaker and visionary. They say that he’s all talk and no action, that he’s full of promises and empty of solutions. We won’t know if that’s true until his time as President is finished. But make no mistake: the power of inspiration cannot be underestimated.
Going to the moon – from pipe dream to splashdown in nine short years – was an absurdly optimistic, even totally unrealistic, notion. And yet President John F. Kennedy lit the fires of our imaginations and aspirations as a nation of innovators and risk-takers, and thirty-eight years later we not only stand as the only nation to have ever accomplished this monstrous feat, but that program spawned entire new industries, millions of jobs, and decades of economic prosperity and engineering invention.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed that he had a dream “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’” it WAS just a dream. But his moving rhetoric and courageous example inspired millions to demand an equality of opportunity and respect for all Americans that ultimately did our nation proud, and made our country stronger and truer to its ideals than it had been before, and more so than many at the time thought was possible.

In one of the televised debates during the primary campaign, Hillary Clinton criticized Barack Obama for relying too much on the power of “the word” to get meaningful things done. Unintimidated by her smug criticism, Barack countered by confidently and clearly re-asserting the power of the word to get meaningful things done, because he knows that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when a leader they trust motivates them to do so. Our own history proves it.

You see, after years of disillusionment, embarrassment, and alienation from the rest of the world under the Bush administration, the American electorate needs now – more than ever – a strong dose of hope. Hope and belief in ourselves that the last eight years are not who we are, or who we are destined to become. The Republicans offer us more fear, conflict, death, destruction, isolation, and erosion of our personal privacy and civil liberties. Barack offers us hope, optimism, a call to get out of the sewer and into the light, to get back to everything that makes this country great.

Like the great orators and visionaries before him, Barack has the power to heal and inspire our nation in a powerful, even game-changing way. Anyone who discounts the value of this unique ability – especially in dour times like these – lacks a singular understanding of our country and its state in the world.

There is no shortage of wonks, advisors and managers in Washington to define and implement policy details. What Washington singularly lacks is a strong, inspiring personality who can unite people around a common purpose – from Congress to Main Street to Wall Street – someone who can motivate them to believe in themselves again, convince them to trust in the promise of the world again, and guide them in returning this country to its founding principles of freedom, prosperity and equality.