"SHE BEGAN WEEPING..."

The Politico relays this poignant story from Indiana:

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn't think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

Not to detract from the immense significance of this moment in our history and in how the world perceives us, but Obama was my choice from early on because he is truly one of our best and brightest. He is that rare man of substance who possessess, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, both a first rate intelligence and a first rate temperament.

I don't see him as an extraordinary black man running for president, but as an extraordinary man running for president who happens to be black. That he is the first black man to become the President of the United States only makes me prouder of the choice and even prouder to be an American.

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