Change we can believe in...

Work brings me to Texas this week and specifically to Austin for a couple of days. I finished my meeting up around 3:30 on Friday afternoon and got to work on figuring out what I would do with the evening ahead. The Clinton/Obama Texas debate took place here the night I arrived and the city (including my hotel) is covered with Democrat staff and volunteers. So when I got back to my hotel I came across a sign announcing that there would be a rally downtown at which Obama would be speaking. So, along with 29,999 of my closest friends I stood for hours in front of the Capital building to listen to the next President of the United States.

He spoke for about an hour and the first 40 minutes were filled with rather uninspired "campaign speak". He was getting his message out but honestly I was wondering at this point if this is what passed for 'inspirational' these days. But then his entire tone changed. He began: "Now, to be fair I think I need to tell you about some of the reasons that have been given as to why I am not a suitable candidate to be the next Commander in Chief." At this point he was smiling a lot and more conversational as opposed to giving a speech.

That led to what I thought was one of the best lines of the night. Reason #4 was that he wasn't tough enough. To which he laughed and said "Ah shoot, I'm a black man with the name Obama!"

It may take my feet a few weeks to recover but it was an interesting night and you got the sense that history was unfolding before your eyes - of course he was preaching to the choir....

Brad