Quote of the week

"I'm not going to make a long speech. I've got to save my best lines for tomorrow"

Barack Obama, at Gavin Coolidge High School, Jan 19

Hope is on the way

So today is the day.

Despite what some of my ex-colleagues (yes you, SJ) might claim, I don't remember JFK; but I have always been captivated by him: the youthful optimism, the charisma and the all-too-short 'Camelot' administration. We've waited a long time for a successor.

I was lucky enough to be working in Philadelphia in July 2004 when Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama introduced himself to Democrats and a national television audience, giving the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Obama told the story of his working class family and urged the nation to elect Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, saying he would ensure more educational and economic opportunities for all.

I watched Obama speak and, even then, it was crystal clear to me that I was watching the first black president of the USA. And today that day has come: his inauguration. At least two million people are expected to attend the inauguration in a record turnout for such an event, along with a television audience in the hundreds of millions if not billions.

Has there ever been so much faith put upon one man?

I, like most of the world, can't wait to hear his speech - already we know that it'll be up there with JFK and Martin Luther King. And I, along with most of the world, wish him the very best of luck.

In his own words, Yes we can.