I sat in a room initially by myself. It was a semi-public room where many academic types mill around on a regular basis. I tuned the TV to CBS and Katie Couric looked great with a smile the entire time she was 'hosting' the conference.
As soon as the voice of the President was heard, immediately I had company. The room filled and at some point in time there were folks that came and went during the news conference.
There were a core group of people that stayed for the entire time and we spoke only occcassionally to each other. We wanted to hear every word and that was the collective understanding of the mostly strangers that gathered.
We heard a man intent on setting the USA back on course with precision and heart. There was no rhetoric, no evasiveness and complete indulgence of every question asked without time limits or limits on 'redirect.'
At the end of the news conference there was a curiousity as to how this country ever achieved the collective will to place him in office precisely when we needed him most. It was noted the 'bust' of Lincoln was in the hallway and we all smiled to note we all had 'picked that up.'
As we tried to 'call up' reasons for our 'good luck' to have him for President, we realized we didn't know enough about this man that has come to lead the USA during its dark hours. We didn't know the moral content of his character that took a President of the Harvard Law Review to Illinios to work as a community organizer. What drove him? What made his spouse at one time during the primaries state, "It is this time or we don't run again."
We love the guy, his point of view, his dedication to our country and his absolute correctness in his approach, but, at the end of the day, who is Barak Obama and how did the USA 'get lucky?'
