A ROUT in South Carolina's
Democratic Presidential Primary;
56% for Obama,
27% for Hillary.
I've watched endless reports on FoxNews,
CNN, CNBC, and even C-span,
listened to all the candidates,
Republican and Democrat alike,
from McCain to Giuliani,
and Edwards to Clinton,
but no one in this 2008 race,
has brought out the deepest emotions
in American voters like Barack Obama.
I see it in the background
whenever he gives a speech;
those delirious cheers and absolute devotion
in the eyes of his supporters,
not unlike how my generation in the Philippines
found a reason to believe, a belief in change,
when we started campaigning for Cory Aquino in '85.
Like Cory two decades ago,
Barack is becoming a true icon.
And no less than
Caroline Kennedy,
the daughter of the most iconic Democrat in history
has recognized the Obama phenomenon for what it is:
'Over the years,
I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me
they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America
the way people did when my father was president,'
'All my life,
people have told me that my father changed their lives,
that they got involved in public service or politics
because he asked them to.
And the generation he inspired has passed
that spirit on to its children.
I meet young people who were born long after
John F Kennedy was president,
yet who ask me how to live out his ideals,'
"Barack Obama is the is the first candidate
for the White House that can inspire
'the way people tell me that my father inspired them.'
And can Mr. Obama give the most heartfelt,
inspiring speeches, infused with the
most soaring rhetoric Americans have heard
in generations?
Yes, he can.
Here is his victory speech from earlier tonight:
"After four -- after four great contests,
in every corner of this country,
we have the most votes,
the most delegates,
and the most diverse coalition of Americans
that we've seen in a long, long time.
You can see it in the faces here tonight.
There are young and old, rich and poor.
They are black and white, Latino and Asian
and Native American.
And we've got young people all across this country
who have never had a reason to participate until now.
And in nine days, in nine short days,
nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us
in saying that we are tired of business as usual in Washington.
We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again.
Yes, we can heal this nation.
Yes, we can seize our future.
And as we leave this great state
with a new wind at our backs
and we take this journey across this great country,
a country we love, with the message we carry,
the same message we had when we were up
and when we were down,
that out of many, we are one;
that while we breathe, we will hope.
And where we are met with cynicism
and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't,
we will respond with that timeless creed
that sums up the spirit of the American people
in three simple words --
yes, we can.
Yes, we can.
Yes, we can change.
Yes, we can."
Those highlighted passages in YELLOW above?
Our thoughts exactly during the 1986 Snap Elections
and the subsequent EDSA Revolution...
Yes, we could!!!
