Wow. The primary and caucus season is finally over and Barack Hussein Obama is the presumptive Democratic candidate for the POTUS. It's weird. No more upcoming states that I need to learn the demographics of. No more anxiously awaiting super delegate endorsements. No more standing in line to vote in a primary and caucus. The next time I vote for Barack it will be when the other side of the ballot says John McCain.

I'm going to try and decompress a lot of things over the next couple of days, but I first wanted to talk about last night.

Anya and I seriously had to turn to each other and laugh numerous times during McCain's speech. It.was.HORRIBLE! The man cannot deliver a speech to save his life. It looked like he didn't fully give a shit about what he was saying. I know that McCain's a good debater and that his folksy style works well in a town hall setting, but man oh man, that speech sucked.

"That's not change you can believe in." Ugh, every time he uttered that line, he would get this smirk as if it was the most clever thing he had ever thought of. And before he'd say that line, he'd fake laugh a little bit, almost as if the laughs were written into the speech text. At one point, he started to say "That's not change you can believe in" having forgotten to laugh. And he caught himself mid-word and laughed. It was bad.

Never mind the fact that he was speaking to about 200 people in what seemed like the back of a Wal-Mart. But I have to tell you, speech aside McCain is going to be a strong opponent. He made the case (at least to me) that many of his planned initiatives (fighting global climate change, ending our dependance on foreign oil, and a return to smaller government) are not a continuation of Bush's policies. That being said, he does fall in line with Bush more often than not with the big issues that people care most about(staying in Iraq, tax policy/economy, health care).

I thought it was rather classless of Hillary to not concede last night. This thing is over. It's been over for months actually, but now it is officially over. He won more delegates, they essentially tied the popular vote, he won more states, and won more super delegates. It's OVER! Why isn't she conceding? Is she trying to bully her way into a VEEP spot?

It's one thing that she didn't concede, it's another that her speech seemed to be somewhat negative in tone. She seems to not really care much about party unity. Can you imagine the reaction she would have gotten had she quieted the "Denver" chant with a line about her not taking things to Denver and that it was time to rally around Barack as the nominee? Her speech seemed to only make her supporters more rabid in their anti-Obama sentiment. And at the end of the day, she made sure that her name is still out there. IT'S OVER! This was supposed to be Barack's night. Here you have the first African American nominee of any party in US history and we're *still* talking about HRC.

Obama's speech was one of the best of the campaign. He hit on a good mixture of specifics and his usual lofty rhetoric. That crowd was his last night. People often misread Barack and think that he's saying that he's going to be the one that goes to Washington and changes things. But if you listen to his speeches, he usually charging us to be the agents of change. He's really creating a movement here and I think it may have the possibility to change politics and what we expect from politicians for years to come.

The highlight of his speech was when talked about how this was a historic moment, because this was going to be the day when universal health coverage, fighting poverty, fighting global climate change, and ending the war in Iraq became national priorities. I thought it was great. The man was on fire last night.

But my favorite moment of the night came when Barack was walking the rope line last night. There was this young African American child (probably about 10 years old) who you could tell was anxiously awaiting his turn to shake Barack's hand. And he had this *HUGE* smile on his face. Barack went through the crowd shaking people's hands and generally went from one person to the next rather rapidly. But when he got to this kid, he stopped and kind of mussed his hair a little bit. You could almost see the world of possibilities that now exist for this child open up before his very eyes. It was a powerful moment.

- Matt

If we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
-- Barack Obama, June 3, 2008