Obama is mainstream and moderate, and working within the system. What does it say about our politics that an attempt to run on a platform of reasonableness and hope for a better future is described by some as a religious cult?

If we assumed that a black person could not be president, what other assumptions were wrong?

Presumably most people agree there are still some issues worth having our government work on.

Concerns of democratic integrity still remain a big issue. Even discounting all those zany Florida elections, voting problems and political dirty tricks still seem to pop up around the country during every election. I mean, I was in Philly on election day in 2004, and I saw a friggin’ fist fight at the polls!

As I leaned back, taking in the depth of the stellar refraction amidst the haze of our Milky Way Galaxy, I felt that perhaps I was able to perceive the Earth pitching forward in rotation, and hurtling through space.