Four years and a couple of months ago, I read on one of the lefty blogs I read (possibly TPM, a very different site back then) about the Senate candidate from Illinois who would be delivering the keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Everything I read about Barack Obama said he was a thrilling speaker and a man with a serious political future.

Freaking out. Freaking out. Freaking out.

Ohio looking good, Florida looking totally uncertain, I hear exit polling with Kerry 1 point up, but reported precincts show a 10% lead for Bush (don't panic yet, lots of votes to be counted, including Miami-Dade, which should be big for Kerry). Have they counted early voting there yet? Pennsylvania is going to be ours. Kerry wins the first swing state, New Jersey, which really isn't a surprise.

Also, no surprise here, but Barak Obama won his Senate race super-handily. But nonetheless, I think the future President of the United States' winning his first national race is big news.

So now, Democrats own many principles but without the labeling necessary to communicate those principles, they'll never get credit for them. So I think that starting now, and for the next four years, we have to start owning our words. And I think there are four words that the Democratic party must control (and four labels they must use, but I'll get to that in a bit). And those words are "Honesty", "Unity", "Responsiblity" and "Values". Yes, that's right, we must take "values" back. I'm sick of people associating anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-minority, anti-education, anti-science opinions as opinions of value. Frankly I'm offended that someone can claim to be a person of "greater values" than me. We can take this word back by returning its meaning to how we knew it before. I think this passage from Barack Obama's inspiring keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention sums this concept up perfectly:

For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga. A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

These words reflect precisely how I feel, and I'm absolutely sick of being told I am not a man of values because of that. I want this word back. The other three words -- honesty, unity and responsibility -- are there for dual purposes. First because they reflect what should be the driving principles behind the Democratic party. However they also represent the greatest differences in governance from the Republicans of today and more specifically from the current administration. 

When 2008 rolled around, I found myself wavering at first between who I would support in the primaries. My brain said "Hillary Clinton", because she had money, phenomenal support, a legacy. But in my heart, I wanted Barack Obama. It wasn't until Iowa and his huge win there that I let myself truly get on board. After that, there was no looking back.