Obama, The "R" Word, and Me

Race is a touchy subject for a liberal, especially a white liberal. Even more so for a white liberal female who cast her primary vote for Hillary Clinton.
It's hard to know where to start, in expressing how I feel about the likelihood of our first black president. But I feel excited.
I feel proud to be an American.
Sometimes I catch a few minutes of the Michael Baisden Show while station-surfing on the way home from work, and get caught up in the excitement there. Yeah, I know I'm white. I check out sites like The Root and feel the same thing.
Maybe part of it is the proverbial guilt. My maternal grandparents hailed from western South Carolina and western Virginia, (Falwell country) respectively. And, of course, I voted for Hillary, so there's that.
But although guilt breeds a sense of responsibility, it doesn't tend to breed excitement.

Part of it is just about Barack Obama himself. He has a certain something, a certain aura of leadership, a certain authenticity, a certain down-to-earth intellectualism (versus Al Gore's and John Kerry's more detached, off-putting variety) and, of course, a certain charisma. There's something in his voice that's both soothing and inspiring, and he has the (admittedly handsome) but furrowed brow of someone who doesn't take decisions lightly, a steadiness and a quiet confidence. These are the qualities that won him all three presidential debates.
I like the guy, as I have since I saw his keynote address four years ago. I liked him even when I cast the primary vote for his opponent. But now I'm on board.
It took a little while to get enthusiastically on board. I was a Bill fan since witnessing his first inaugural, and have wanted to see Hillary run since it was first tossed around as a remote possibility. It took some time to move on, but I've moved. I don't regret my primary vote, but I think my fellow Democrats made the right decision, and I look forward to following their example on Tuesday in the general election.

And part of it really is about race. I want to see unity in this country, and I want to see real healing, and I know that the former can't come without the latter. And I know how deeply Barack Obama feels and believes this (as a crucial aspect of his own identity, no doubt) and that gives me hope that we can see both, and maybe sooner than most of us thought we would. That's the sense I got after hearing his Philadelphia speech.

So, yeah, I'm white. Yeah, I voted for Hillary. And yeah, I'm excited about our first black president, excited about racial healing and reconciliation... and excited about electing Barack Obama.