Wednesday, February 6, 2008

"Fired up! Ready to go!"

I'm very proud of my home state of North Dakota for bringing it in for Barack Obama last night on Super Tuesday. The tiny red state may not deliver a hefty punch in delivering delegate numbers, but it does deliver a signal loud and clear that change is on its way.

With recent news of Hillary Clinton pumping $5 million of her own money into her campaign this week, I'm reminded of the saying "slow and steady wins the race" from the fable The Tortoise and the Hare.

Clinton's infusion of her own money into her campaign is an indication she has nearly tapped out her primary campaign funding fueled by a small pool of big-money donors. In contrast, Obama's campaign funding continues to grow by relying on just the opposite with trickles of money continuously coming in from a large pool of small donations made by everyday citizens like me who live paycheck to paycheck.

Sure, my $60 contribution to the Obama campaign may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of what campaigns cost today, but my donation combined with millions of others across the nation is a display of hope and people believing in the words, "Yes, we can."

This comparison of campaign funding to The Tortoise and the Hare can also be shown in the voting results of Super Tuesday. Even though Clinton is still leading in the number of delegate nominations, Obama is slowly closing the gap after winning more states and delegate nominations than Clinton yesterday.

We are in the home stretch of the first inning of a grueling race for change that started more than seven years ago in Florida. Those of my generation, including me, who were voting for the first time in a presidential election felt robbed of hope and belief in American democracy.

Despite naysayers who believed my generation was nothing more than another group of idealist youth who wouldn't wouldn't walk the walk, we have marched on in the race for change by giving our voice of dissent.

Over the last seven years our voice has only grown louder after continually being pummeled by lies about:
  • Weapons of mass destruction,
  • Torture scandals concerning prisoners of war,
  • An information leak revealing the identity of a CIA agent,
  • Help being on its way to Katrina victims,
  • The firing of Democratically appointed federal prosecutors for "poor" performance,
  • And the list continues to amount.
All of that said, I'm still fired up and ready to go to the polls this Saturday to cast my caucus vote for the only real candidate of change - Barack Obama.

Monday, February 4, 2008