Obama

I have a new habit.

Whenever there's a primary going on, I turn on MSNBC and I watch their coverage (I'm a big fan of the Olbermann/Matthews team and, strangely, Pat Buchanan). And I wait for Barack Obama to speak.

It inspires me every time. And it trips me out.

I'll be listening to his speech, and every time there's a couple of minutes where I zone out. This happens because I can't believe my eyes. I honestly never believed that I would see the day where someone who looks like me would have a legitimate shot at the presidency of the United States. I can't tell you how proud that makes me, and how good it makes me feel.

Not to get too much into it, but I've spent a lot of my life being told what I could or couldn't do (you should be good at basketball! you shouldn't be getting good grades!), and receiving backhanded compliments for "being different". I didn't have a whole lot of role models. My parents, I guess. The Huxtables. But this...I mean, if Obama can win, I really feel like a Black person could do anything in this country. It's very exciting.

And I resisted Obama for a while because of this. I read his book two years ago (and was blown away), but I had all kind of reasons for not supporting him. I wanted him to wait for Hillary. I wanted him to get more experience. And I definitely didn't want to support him just because he was Black. I think that, deep down inside, I was afraid that he would fail miserably and/or become a joke. But it hasn't worked out that way at all.

But now, I'm on board - been here for a couple of months. Fired up, ready to go, so to speak.