So, there's a beautifully-written diary by a woman in my home state of Michigan that tells the tale of how she came to abandon Camp Clinton and dive into Lake Obama.
I wrote a comment about my own, far less-dramatic journey into Obamaland, then realized that it might be worthy of its' own diary. You be the judge.
I admit that I haven't been "taken" with Obama the way so many of his supporters have been--I "get" him, but I'm not at nearly the same level that the "Yes We Can" supporters are at.
There's a good reason for this, however, and his name is Howard Dean.
4 years ago (actually, more like 5), I had a similar epiphany about Dean to what so many Obama supporters are experiencing right now--a powerful sense that at long last, someone had come along who could not just win my vote, but inspire me to go above and beyond. I was a very stereotypical "Deanocrat" (I much prefer that term to "Deaniac"--early thirties, never politically involved before (beyond voting for the lesser of two evils every 4 years, etc), never gave money to a candidate before, etc etc. After being bitten by the Dean bug, I was completely on board--donating, following every move, talking him up to friends and family, etc.
In short, I allowed myself to Hope.
Tragically, for a variety of reasons...it just wasn't meant to be. Dean crashed, hard, and I was severely burned.
So, when I first saw Obama on the scene, I couldn't help but be cynical. I was so badly burned by the Dean experience that I played my support cautiously this time around--I supported Richardson at first, then Edwards, then, when I saw that Edwards wasn't viable, I shrugged and made the only practical decision I had left--I started supporting Obama (I already knew that I couldn't support Hillary, so Obama was the only other option).
Then I started to actually listen to what the man was saying, and observing the effect he has on people...and I'm incredibly impressed. Most importantly, unlike Dean, Obama can make it all the way to the top (and is halfway there already).
Obama is, in many ways, like Dean 2.0--he has all of Dean's strengths (honesty, straightforwardness, ability to inspire new voters, recognition of the importance of competing everywhere, etc), but is much better in areas that were Dean's weaknesses (ability to work the media, debating skills, etc). I strongly suspect that Obama watched Howard Dean very closely and took notes on how to take Dean's basic approach without making the same mistakes. So far he's walked that minefield pretty well.
So, while I'll never be quite as ga-ga over Obama as so many of his supporters are, I do recognize the effect that he's having on them--and on the political process in general. In that sense, I suspect my support of Obama is of a similar nature to that of Bill Richardson--he may not be all gooey-eyed over the guy, but he absolutely recognizes that there's "something special about the guy", a once-in-a-lifetime candidate, and if you aren't gonna fall completely "in love" you have to at least respect the power that you see there, and throw in accordingly.