I am proud to be a lifelong Democrat.  We did things differently.  We had morals.  We had conviction.  We had ethics.  That's why it was so hard to live through the Bush/Rove era.  All the things that I believe in were ignored and thought to be "quaint."  

But, in 2006 I felt that spark re-kindle.  It felt like the pendulum had started to swing back to the left.  Could that be?  It had been so long, I wasn't sure I would recognize it if it happened.  

Although originally for Edwards, the day he dropped out I gave my first contribution to Obama.  I began to listen more closely to his speeches.  I began to feel that optimism grow in me.  I started to believe that "Yes we can!"  

Just when I started to get excited that THIS time, THIS time it was different, it started.  The Clinton campaign started to become Rovian.  Instead of rejecting it, the MSM started to lap it up.  It was like a drug to them.  The more negative it got, the more they had to have it.  If Hillary didn't give it to them, they made it up, feeding off themselves.  

I started to wonder, "What made me think that this time was different.  What was I thinking to believe that the corporations who controlled everything were going to give up that power and control to us?"  

The MSM continued to pile on.  "More Wright!  More Bowling?  More Hillary quotes!"  It's as if Obama has been chummed into a feeding frenzy of negative reporting.  

What was I thinking?  Does America really want its country back?  Does America want to keep things as they've been?  Don't they want to move our country out of the depths from where it has been and put it back in the sunlight of world opinion?  

I guess time will tell, but in the meantime, someone talk me off of the ledge.