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Barack the House

Barack Obama did not disappoint on the floor of the 2007 Democratic Party convention. He had the crowd from the beginning, and they never left him, as he delivered a powerful speech in a booming voice that sent the crowd to its feet more than once.

"Turn the Page," was the refrain of this speech. It was powerful even on its own, but stood in stark contrast to Hillary's "You are Invisible" earlier in the day.

First, I'll give the critique, and then the glowing review. The part that fell the flattest with this crowd was his usual stump lines about "changing politics as usual." with the phrases like "they get to write the checks, and you get to write a letter." It was a bit tone deaf to say to a room full of 2,100 hardcore and longtime Democratic activists a message that resonates much better with people who have been checked out of politics. I'm happy that he is bringing that message to those people, but for these people, the problem is the Republican-embraced conservative ideology, not the lobbyists in Washington.

But any lukewarm reaction to that part of the speech was more than made up for when the topic turned to the war in Iraq. It became the focus of the speech, and it was the strongest on Iraq that I had ever seen him. He spoke forcefully about how this was a war that should have never been authorized, and about how this is a conflict that will never be resolved by the military, and will never be resolved as long as U.S. troops are there. But the most brilliant thing he did was turn the "I" into "we," as he deliberately connected with and identified with this very anti-war crowd.

"I opposed this war from the beginning in 2002, just as many of you all did," he said. "We knew back then this war was a mistake." He also said that if the President doesn't sign the bill to withdrawl, he will fight to get the 16 votes needed to override the veto, which was more than any of the other candidates said.

If Iraq is the defining issue of this race, Barack Obama has it. Clinton's careful avoidance of the topic, to boos from the crowd, was a clear signal of that.

The part of the speech that brought tears to my eyes was when he talked about his recent trip to Selma, Alabama, commemorating the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. When the fire hoses and the dogs came, those people were beat down and beat down, but they kept coming back, and they finally got to the other side. He said people said to him, how amazing it must have been to celebrate that African American history.

"No," he said. "This is not African American history. This is American history we're celebrating. This is our story. It reminds us of a simple truth, one I learned all those years as an organizer on Chicago: In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it."

Four years ago I stood in a similar hall in Sacramento and got inspired by the fighting words of a then-obscure Howard Dean. Today, I stood there with tears rolling down my face, knowing that the work I have done, along with the work of millions of other people, is changing this country, and will continue to do so.

Obama's final quote is one that I will continue to repeat as we head down the road of this very long campaign:

"There are few obstacles that can withstand the power of millions of voices asking for change."

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