The last 36-hours have been overwhelming in historical significance. A young black man, born of mixed-race parents, raised by a single white mother in Indonesia and later white grandparents in Hawaii, obtained a top Ivy League education, worked as a lawyer in Chicago helping to organise union members, ran unsuccessfully for Congress, then became a state Senator from Illinois, ran for the US Senate and in his first term in office ran for President defeating the most important political family machine in Democratic Party politics since the Kennedys?

Most Obama supporters gave up 16-months of their lives to see the spectacle of 19,000 supporters (15,000 more outside watching on big screen telly) shoehorn themselves into the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis, the site where the Republican Party will confirm their presumptive nominee John McCain as their candidate for President. One almost needs to stop and catch their breath after every sentence here.

Those of us alive in the 60’s, I sat on the couch in my Grandma’s house for Dr. King’s speech, remember vividly the assassinations of JFK, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, how much despair there was and how ludicrous it was to think we would see this in our lifetime.

40-years ago tomorrow Bobby Kennedy was tragically assassinated and racial riots ensued across America’s inner cities as people of colour saw their last great hope for racial equality gone. When Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Nomination for President in Denver, it will be on the 45th anniversary of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

News and blogs examine the reasons Hillary Clinton lost. Let’s also be very clear and give credit where it is due. Barack Obama won, convincingly and ran a positive, high road and noble campaign. Yes, he stumbled near the end and never lost focus of the vision and goal he set for himself.

He continues to inspire the imagination of people around the globe.

Yesterday morning children in Kenya and nations around the world awoke to the news. Senator Obama spoke in an interview of an inner city teacher coming up to him and saying that because of his campaign and role model, young male black students were becoming more serious about their studies.

Some analysts were shocked to see that in the eyes of many of the new young Democratic voters, race was never an issue. One network tried to place an arbitrary age, less than 45 years, as the magic point where race no longer mattered because they did not suffer like the older generation.

Whatever the reason, at 2:30 yesterday morning when the speech was nearing its completion and the early cutaway from John McCain’s attempt to upstage and Hillary Clinton’s delusional dream speech, it became clear that maintaining dignity and the high road is what makes Barack Hussein Obama so special. He will remain focused on results and bringing us together. McCain and his Republican co-horts will look for a swift boat style item to attack and this time, one solitary man will show the world we can disagree, vehemently, without losing our dignity or becoming personally disagreeable.

That is how America will come back into the community of nations and revitalise itself and end the hubris and arrogance of the Bush years.
 
That is our dream.

What went wrong Hillary