This election cycle (#1375)

2008 was an election of firsts. In the primaries on the Democratic side there were two individuals asking to become our national leader who represented a woman and a man of color. Neither has a woman or until 2008, a man of color ever held our highest American office. So when the man of color won out a tight primary race against the woman, a predictable emotional surge followed. Regardless of whether the man of color won or the woman had won, the emotional surge was fairly certain to follow. It just happened that it followed the man of color, which he rode all the way to the White House. 4 years later the emotion of electing the first man of color is no longer a surge following this election so the election has now moved from our emotion to our intellect. Rightly so, and because of that we have to look at performance and not the making new history. When President Obama was elected in 2008, his ideas were quite strong and in conjunction with the emotion of the moment, was plenty enough to elect him. Now we only have his ideas as a purpose for re-electing him and it is in the ideas that we are seeing the stuff of which he is made. He carried us through emotion and now he is carrying us through with intellect. President Obama is no straw man, someone propped up into place that others control. He is his own man and his election in 2008 was not just based upon his skin color. His election in 2008 was despite his skin color and was really all about his love for our country. Today we get to see that love through his policies to strengthen our society in areas of equality and justice through fairness. Quite an accomplishment for a man who was thought more a sensation four years ago than what he really is, a statesman with gravitas.