Fessin' up...

Obama's being inaugurated tomorrow. Vicky's very excited. For my own part, I thought I'd look back to see what I said about him on this blog back when the election season first began, what my first impression was... and it's kinda sad. But I've decided to practice a little bit of intellectual honesty and own it, anyway.

Here's what I said after the first debate:

Obama. Where to start? I can’t begin to guess why he is so loathed by Republicans – you know, aside from being a wise black man, something can no more understand than a moral gay man. Yes, they exist, too. I wish he’d done better last night but he’s too easy put on defense and doesn’t have his talking points down. Does he have time for that? Ordinarily, sure. But not when the primary season begins this early. He needs to get strong NOW. He could be a great president… but, again, nobody’s going to vote for him. Why? Because America does not elect a black man. Call me cynical but it’s true and the Repugs are going to get repugnant and we know that.

Okay, let's see... Typos? Check. Repugnicans? Check.

Aside from the obvious gaffe - America does not elect a black man as President (MY BAD!) - two things stood out to show how much Obama grew during the election season. Early on, he was quick to play defense and he didn't really have his story, or talking points, down. Now, you can see how he really grew to control the narrative and got his message out. As a political junkie, these things are really interesting to me.

I'm glad I had faith in him even back then. (This was August of '07!) And I'm glad so many of us had faith (and, if you'll pardon me, hope) that a black man could be President. It's obvious Obama was elected for more reasons that just his race but it's good to see we didn't let that stop us.

Now, it's time to make predictions about his term in office... which I'll leave up to someone else, thank you very much!