I'm not normally a "political" person. I have been known in the past to vote for "the lesser of two evils" especially when it comes to certain issues. I think overall politics are a necessary part of the system we have, but I actually have very little faith in anything "the empire" (our government and economic system) promotes.

But this upcoming election has me, I dunno, excited? And it's all because of Barack Obama.

Here's the background:

In 2004, while watching the Democratic Convention, my husband and I saw Obama's speech. After he was done, I turned to Bruce and said, "That man will be our president someday. Maybe not in 2008, but someday, watch." That was quite a statement for me to make, seeing I have a traditional Republican bent -- mostly because of the pro-life stance I take. I knew nothing about Obama, but I had a feeling...

At that time, anyone outside of Illinois had heard very little of Obama. Especially around here in no where, Michigan. But there was something -- something impossible for me to define -- that happened in my heart when I heard Barack speak.

Since then, he's become the media darling. I've followed him since 2004, and was not the least bit surprised when he decided to run this year. Today, I got my most recent issue of "Rolling Stone," and there's a great article on Barack Obama. The author, Ben Wallace-Wells, began to give me quite a bit of insight into what it might be that makes me want so badly for Obama to be my next president.

The following quotes are all from the article:

"Just being the president is not a good way of thinking about it," Obama says now. "You want to be a great president."

"People don't come to Obanma for what he's done in the Senate," says Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Counsel. "They come because of what they hope he could be." (Hope -- that's what I feel when I think about this. Wallace-Wells continues on later...)

"There is a desire to own his story, to be both his own Boswell and his own investigative reporter. When you read his autobiography, the surprising thing -- for such a measured politician -- is the depth of radical feeling that seeps through ...Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising. Obama's life story is a splicing of two different roles, and two different ways of thinking about America's. One is that of the consummate insider, someone who has been raised believing that he will help to lead America, who believes in this country's capacity for acts of outstanding virtue. The other is that of a black man who feels very deeply that this country's exercising of its great inherited wealth and power has been grossly unjust. This tension runs through his life (Obama's story is mine -- is ours!) Obama is at once an insider and an outsider, a bomb thrower and the class president. 'I'm somebody who believes in this country and it's institutions,' he tells me. 'But I often think they're broken.' "

I read that an am blown away. I feel so similar ... not only my country, but the church, my faith, most "leaders" and authority figures in my life have brought out similar feelings. Barack Obama is a reflection of me -- of my culture and generation -- so strongly that I can hardly stand it. All the other guys are still "old school" politicians. They use the system -- abuse it -- and don't really give a damn about me, my family or what we think and feel. Barack Obama's heart is our heart. Amazing. Here's more from the interview:

"When Obama returned to Chicago, he turned down big-money firms to take a job with a small civil rights practice, filing housing discrimination suits of behalf of low-income residents and teaching constitutional law on the side..." Someone who really cares about the poor? The oppressed? Give me more!

According to Paul Harstad, Obama's pollster on the campaign trail, "We were doing a focus group in suburban Chicago, and this woman, seventy years old, looks seventy-five, hears Obama's life story, and she clasps her hand to her chest sand says, 'Be still, my heart' Be still my heart -- I've been doing this for a quarter of a century and I've never seen that...the most remarkable thing, for Harstad, was that the woman hadn't even seen the videos he had brought along of Obama speaking, had no idea of what the young politician looked like. 'All we'd done,' he says, 'is to tell them the Story.'"

"The Story.." this concept is playing a big role in the community I am a part of, and to a lesser extent the church we are currently a part of. I realized, after reading this article, Obama's story is what gripped me, even before I knew it! His story is written all over his face -- his smile, his body language, his persona. I look at Obama, and I listen to his speech and his story, and I have hope that the America I was raised to believe existed may really, truly still be possible.

The article goes on to tell more about Obama's life and his political goals (which are still unclear in some areas, so that's where I need to do more research), as well as his ability to be real, unassuming, and make people comfortable. Wallace-Wells tells of his going back to Kenya, and the overwhelming response from the people of his father. His genuine concern for Africa, for the issues that concern me, too. He is the first politician who I believe speaks to this "thought generation" I am a part of.

People are comparing his charsima and his campaingn to that of Bobby Kennedy. I don't remember that -- I was way too little. But I do sense something -- electric? Different? -- in this election. We'll see ... I just pray some kook doesn't try to wack Obama before he gets a chance to show us what hope realized would look like.

"Obama biro!" is Swahili for "Obama's coming." It's my heart's cry right now. We'll see what the next year brings.