He Must Get Elected First

Part of running for office is keeping your eye on the prize. Another key is making certain that you get elected. Having to tweak a bit here, bend a bit there and or compromise to make sure you get elected, well that’s the name of the game. History shows us that there are plenty of quality candidates – names like Biden, Dodd, Kucinich and Richardson – that had a wonderful message and a tremendous presence, but never caught fire and really had no chance to ascend to the presidency.

Barack Obama is no fool. He has had to migrate a little more toward the middle of the road in the past couple of months, but he has definitely not compromised his principles or his values in the process. Yes, he gets unmercifully criticized by Republicans and particularly his opponents when he deviates even a millimeter from what he said a year ago or more, but Barack recognizes that he can’t be rigid, much like George W. Bush, who will not change his mind even when proven wrong, and he must keep current and alter some previously announced decisions based on the conditions as they currently exist.

A prime example of Barack tweaking or even changing his position is the so-called pledge he took to accept public financing in the general election. I do wince when I hear people from John McCain on down criticizing him and calling him a flip-flopper and an opportunist, but Obama would make a critical error ignoring 1.7 million or so individual donors in lieu of a vastly reduced amount of funding for the next five months. Having seen the venomous attacks coming from the well-funded Republican Party and McCain’s own ability to be in continuous attack mode, Barack must by necessity take advantage of every opportunity to stay competitive.

The current FISA discussion is just one more area where Barack must adjust his previously announced position. Let’s face it…there are times when it is better to get half of something than all of nothing, and the ongoing controversy surrounding the FISA legislation is not going to provide Obama’s presidential campaign with a positive outcome that is worth the time and heartache to stick with what looked different one year ago.

The ultimate irony is that Obama cannot be accused of changing positions 180 degrees for political expediency or just to get elected. If you like that sort of candidate, Barack’s opponent will be your guy. McCain has thoroughly and diligently re-invented himself and his original positions so severely that he currently no longer supports bills that he himself authored over the past number of years. Barack Obama, on the other hand, does break a promise to do something here and there, but he essentially is the same man with the same stance and positions that announced that he was a candidate for president in the winter of 2007.

I am proud to stand with Barack and his millions of supporters across this country because I respect a person who is willing to stand up for what he believes in, but is also willing to admit from time to time that he can bend without breaking; in other words, be a person that has the intestinal fortitude to change a position because it is the right thing to do. He doesn’t say or do anything just to get elected, but at the same time he does recognize and acknowledge that he must attain the office before he can truly begin to govern.

Having attained a certain amount of notoriety and stature myself among my family, friends and co-workers as an Obama supporter that has publicly stepped up and put my money where my mouth is, I have from time to time received a bit of ribbing from well-meaning people about Barack’s recent changes in position and rather snide and vehement chastisement from people who seem to thrive on Obama not belng more Bush-like and sticking to his guns no matter what changes have occurred in the interim. I have pretty much weathered the storm, because first of all, our candidate Barack has for the most part maintained his original positions and been a man of his word, and secondly, his chief competitor is in no position to criticize anyone for doing what he has himself has become the master at.

I have told many people over the past several months or so who question me about Obama’s experience, his religion, his foreign exposure, you name it that Barack’s main strength is that he will listen, learn, educate himself and form whatever committee or group he has to to get to the proper decision that best represents what is best for our country and the American people. This is one thing that I feel strongly separates him from John McCain. But his number one task first and foremost is to get to the White House before he can accomplish anything beyond being an excellent candidate.

I can’t wait.

I've Been Watching

Since Barack Obama was declared the presumptive Democratic nominee on the final night of the primary season, I’ve been sitting back and observing. The truth is that I have devoted a tremendous amount of my personal time to the campaign, and it was time for me over the past few weeks to throw myself into my work. Truth be told, I still have a paying job, and since it finally picked up over the past few weeks, I had to make hay while the sun shined.

Distancing myself from campaign work has allowed me to regain a perspective that is a bit different from being directly in the trenches. I have allowed myself to watch and listen to various media outlets , stations and channels on the left and far right, and I now feel that I have developed a sense of where this presidential contest is headed. I must say that I am not really surprised, but at the same time, I am still somewhat disturbed by what I see.

As luck would have it…well, it’s really more than luck. It’s fate and great timing. We have a terrific candidate in Barack. I adore him, and he has really become a symbol for my entire family to rally around. My wife and I have not felt like this for most of our adult lives, and it’s been very empowering to be a Democrat in 2008. I have also been very pleased to watch my daughter, who will be 20 in August, blossom into an involved and engaged member of our American democracy.

I have watched with curiosity John McCain and how his campaign has evolved. He is an enigma in the sense that he has completely reinvented himself from the McCain of eight years ago. We cannot take him seriously, and yet he is all the Republicans have got, and even though he fails in almost every category of representation as a qualified and quality candidate for the Republican Party, the powers that be have bounced into action as if they have another Ronald Reagan running for president.

Barack must plow ahead and continue on his historic journey toward the presidency. He is a superior person and candidate to John McCain, but we must not spend one moment becoming complacent. By the time we reach the election in November, Barack will be slandered, lied about, had his record completely misrepresented and outright shredded, and he is relatively untested when it comes to the attack machine that is the Republican Party. They are just getting started, and one look at what they’ve done to Democratic candidates from Dukakis to Gore to Kerry will remind us how potent their venom is.

McCain looked into the camera about two months ago and said that he will run a positive campaign, completely free of negative attacks on his opponent. Although no one with one working brain cell believed that, he has actually made an art of his daily attacks on Obama. He and his surrogate team seem to have almost abandoned an actual agenda in lieu of seeing what Barack is talking about or doing and then either reacting to that or countering his words and attacking him politically and personally, technically substituting a traditional game plan with an attack strategy, kind of a scorched earth on Obama policy.

Well, in the long run it won’t work, but it’s painful to watch sometimes. I visited a very close friend yesterday who is wealthy, Republican and quite self-righteous when it comes to support of what has protected his vast assets the last eight years. I have deliberately stayed away from politics during our many visits, but yesterday he was a bit feisty, and since I was coming directly from a meeting at the San Mateo County Central Democratic office where I will put in quite a bit of time the next several months, he was ready to pounce.
He first asked me what I plan to do for Barack Obama and this country. He is very well aware that I am headed to Denver as an Obama delegate, although he’s never brought it up or congratulated me for it. I told him that I will spend a good amount of time registering voters and that since voting is clearly our most important right, one that is ignored by over half of our population every election, this is my highest calling.

He started asking me about Obama’s tax policy, and reminded me that the word Democrat is synonymous with raising taxes. Before I could even answer, he also told me that he essentially knows nothing about Barack Obama because he’s so secretive and doesn’t really want to come out and let the world see who he really is. Sounds like a Fox News headline to me. He asked me what I thought of Obama’s plan to raise everyone’s taxes.

I informed him that Obama’s plan is to actually lower the taxes on a vast majority of this country, certainly those making under what we would all consider the higher end of the spectrum, and that people who are high-end wage earners have been protected long enough over the past eight years of the Bush Administration and it’s time that they should pay their fair share. He of course didn’t agree with me and felt that no one should have one dime of extra taxes to pay.

He also pointed out that Democrats have the philosophy that government should pay for everything, and that it’s his presumption that Obama is in the same mold of Democrats of years past, and I let him know that the unique gift that Barack has is in considering all modes of paying for things in this country, and that he would strive to determine the best ways to have necessary government programs get funded and be paid for.

My friend then pointed out that he doesn’t believe that we should just abandon Iraq and allow our “enemies” to see us a quitters and that we should complete the mission as the victors. I once again pointed out that Obama completely comprehends the necessity to get us out of Iraq as carefully as he can while getting the rest of the world and Iraqis themselves to shoulder the burden that the US is now completely taking on themselves, and that we need the vast amount of money that we are wasting in Iraq to spend on the infrastructure of our own country.

Lastly, he has totally bought into the McCain/Bush proposition that we should begin exploration for oil on the continental shelf and oceans in our country, because that is the best way to wean ourselves off of foreign oil, and I was happy to point out to him that this proposal is a red herring, that the oil companies already own vast oil leases in many parts of our country already that are capped and that they are simply sitting on them to control the price and supply of oil that is available to consumers.

My friend represents a portion of our country that I see and hear every day, and it is all of our responsibilities to enlighten everyone around us as to what the truth is about Barack Obama. I have enjoyed a few weeks off from the grind of the primary season, and now I’m renewed, fired up and ready to go on with the rest of the election. I will try to stay positive and recognize that I have a job to do, as we all do, and I will not rest until I’m on the plane heading to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of President Obama.

Obama Can't Pass Up This Opportunity

Close your eyes and picture this…Barack standing up in front of a crowd of 20,000 plus in Daytona Beach or Miami Beach with a life-sized computer enhanced poster of Florida’s spectacular coastline with renderings of potential oil derricks and platforms sitting just offshore as they do off the coast of Louisiana and off the coast north of Santa Barbara.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen what these hideous looking oil platforms look like. Imagine the pristine palm tree lined beaches just waiting for you to lay down your blanket, cooler and beach ball, and as you and your family turn to face the crystal blue ocean lapping up onto the sand just inches from your sun-drenched feet, you gaze out on dark colored oil platforms that are probably five miles offshore, but seem like they’re close enough to swim to. It’s just an eyesore.

Showing what this will look like is exactly what Barack should do as he explains very calmly and concisely what McCain offers to the State of Florida. He needs to explain exactly why it is not just unnecessary for oil companies to be given the right to drill off the continental shelf of the United States, particularly Florida -- known for its number one industry, tourism -- but that even if it were somehow considered a good idea, the US consumer would not reap the benefits of any oil exploration from this drilling for many years to come. Certainly too late to provide any relief to our current gas price crisis.

Although John McCain has come out in favor of this potential drilling off our coasts, his close advisor and potential running mate, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, has consistently been against it, except he has now flipflopped on this issue under pressure of the Republican Party and the McCain campaign. He now miraculously supports investigating the prospect of drilling off Florida’s coastline.

It is imperative that Barack let his audiences know that the oil companies have more than enough untapped oil wells and oil leases sitting up in Alaska that they already own and are just holding on to for the future. They are managing the supply of oil and allowing the demand of the consumer just fine, thank you. Apparently the amount of oil sitting under the ground in the Naval grounds already under the control of many American oil companies vastly surpasses the amounts that could be encountered in any exploration of either America’s continental shelf and/or the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We know that for certain. http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/images/stories/Documents/truth_about_americas_energy.pdf

Let’s make certain that this is thoroughly and thoughtfully explained to the American people, and he can do that standing in front of a huge crowd demonstrating what Florida’s coastline would look like under a McCain presidency. He also needs to clearly show that an Obama presidency will emphasize alternative sources of energy, a completely different mindset that doesn’t automatically look toward Saudi Arabia and its neighbors for its good graces when it comes to oil production, and that in additional to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, which is just one alternative to be considered, there are a myriad of paths that we can go down, like gasoline free cars, higher fuel efficiency standards, increased public transit access, etc.

John McCain is very predictable in his approach to this issue and has very clearly aligned himself with the oil companies and on the side of big business and the Bush/Cheney regime. This is a golden opportunity for Barack to show that he is staunchly and proudly on the side of the American consumer and our progressive energy future.

My Father's Day Message to My Own Family

Today is Father’s Day, and I think that there is no more important day in my life than today. We lost a very important person on Friday to our daily lives, and that is Tim Russert. He exemplified what we all need to remember, that our families are more important than anything else in our lives. Wealth, financial success, fancy cars, what country club we belong to, we company we work for, what stores we can shop at, what address we live at and all the other measures of how we define ourselves should always be secondary to what is most vital in our lives, how we treat our spouse, our children, our brothers and sisters and our grandchildren, if we have any.

I have been so very blessed in my life. I am still working very hard to establish my own financial wealth and standing, but that pales in comparison to what I strive to do every day, which is to be a loving and supportive father, a caring friend and loving partner to my wife, a doting grandfather of six spectacular grandchildren (and I keep Ireland in my heart every day) and an encouraging friend and brother to my brother and sister. I also love being an uncle to all of my wonderful nieces and nephews.

Tim Russert, no matter how much success he had and how many world leaders he got to rub elbows with, never forgot where he came from, who he was and that he was nothing if he forgot his family, friends and the home he loved. My own father, whose memory I carry with me every single day, helped to shape me to be who I am. I have so much of him within me, but I have become my own person and have chosen to adopt so much of what I loved about him. He was not perfect, but who is. I once came over to find him sitting in the hot sun, which we know he always did, and as we sat there alone in the backyard, he said, “I want to tell you something about your mother.” I thought, oh-oh, but he said, “I have never loved your mother more than I do at this moment. I have been so lucky!”

I want to wish all the fathers here today the happiest Father’s Day, because we deserve it. We all know if we can be a better dad than we are, as I do sometimes, and I will always work at being the best dad I can be. Beverlee, who will be 39 this September, still needs her dad. She honored me over eight years with wishing to be my daughter, and when I take a moment to assess what an amazing life I get to live with Cynthia, I am truly humbled.

My grandson, Jesse, was in our hotel room last Monday night, and as I watched him sitting at the desk doodling on a piece of paper, I was wondering what he was writing, but when he turned around and handed the note to me, it said, “Hi, Grandpa Mark. Hope to see you soon! I love you.” Life is very, very good.

My message today is that Tim Russert has reminded us all how short life is. We don’t know what’s around the corner. We could all live another forty years or go next week. Tim Russert, as early as he left this earth, had sixteen years longer than I had with my dad. Cynthia and I are thinking of her dad today. He was a lovely man. I only got to meet him once, and then he was gone. He asked me what my intentions are with his daughter, and I can tell you I brought a smile to his face.

It is the most important thing to tell everyone we love that we love them. Now is the time. There’s no time to wait. I have done that today or the past couple of days. If you haven’t done so, what are you waiting for?

I love you all very much!

***Read to my family June 15th

Protecting a Woman's Right to Choose

It would be very hard to imagine that a woman’s right to choose whether she should have an abortion or not could be in jeopardy. This critical issue is at the forefront of this country’s choice for president, and nothing presents a more stark difference between the two candidates than the protection of a woman’s right to choose. One candidate is promising to take this right away, John McCain, and the other will ensure that a woman’s right to choose remains intact.

I am over 50, and in the deep recesses of my mind, I can remember stories of backroom abortions, coat hanger procedures done in back allies and unqualified doctors luring desperate women into hidden clinics, sometimes leaving women scarred, both physically and emotionally. This horrendous scenario could be a thing of the future if this country were to elect John McCain, who has assured the American people that he will appoint Supreme Court justices who will do just that.

While I am no fan of abortion, it is a procedure that some women must avail themselves of. It should obviously not be used as a form of birth control, but it is not up to me to decide, and it is not John McCain’s choice, either. It is imperative that this right be kept intact in this country, and with the incoming president potentially having the opportunity to appoint one or more new justices to the Supreme Court, the only way that we can make certain that women continue to have the rights they possess now is to elect Barack Obama.

The ironic thing is that people who describe themselves as pro life should also be for Barack Obama if they are being true to themselves and their beliefs. History shows us that abortions were consistently on the rise during the Reagan administration, but then dropped consistently over the eight years of the Clinton administration. This is directly tied to appropriate education that is provided to young men and women in schools and improved economic conditions in the country that were not as prevalent during the Reagan years.

The Obama presidency will offer improved educational opportunities and vastly improving economic conditions, and as younger people are exposed to the realities and dangers of unprotected sex, the availability of appropriate contraception and the negative stigma is taken away from a mature discussion in school and medical clinics, abortions will naturally diminish. Abortions also go down when economic conditions go up because of better ability to afford birth control. Under a McCain presidency, we are certain to have a continuity of the Bush/Cheney practice of abstinence programs, faith-based restrictions on open discussion, and this tends to lead to more abortions and unsafe sexual practices by teenagers and young people.

My wife and I have successfully raised our daughter, who turns 20 in August, to be safe, knowledgeable and wise when it comes to taking care of herself and her reproductive health. Unfortunately, not all women, young or older, are lucky enough to have parents or other close family members to guide them and encourage them to take care of themselves properly. It is for these women, along with women in general who may wish to one day choose to have an abortion or even get counseling about the procedure, that we must keep this vital option available to them.

Let’s make this a certainty by voting for Barack Obama in November.

Fighting the Smears

I am thrilled that the Obama campaign has done something that will help us all. There is now a new website, www.fightthesmears.com, which is a simple to follow and unfortunately necessary place where many of the urban myths, unfair accusations and internet lies and mischaracterizations are dealt with. The site simply lists many of the rumors, innuendoes and smears against Obama and tells whether it is a lie or not and allows the reader to read more about it if they choose. And like the myBO site, it is easily negotiable and is ready to be emailed.

This presidential campaign has degenerated to new low level and has made this website a mandatory tool for clarity and truth. I have noticed that news sources like Fox News consistently disseminate this type of misinformation on an hourly basis. I have seen emails that have not one shred of truth in them sent to people with an encouragement to send it to everyone they know. I have personally spoken to people who I thought should know better spout pure lies and absolute misinformation that they choose to believe, and this new website now at least gives us a place that we can utilize for people to reference and they can check it out to get their facts straight.

The main problem, however, is that many people that believe negative information about Barack actually want to believe these things. They deliberately don’t enlighten themselves with the correct information that is readily available on other networks or radio stations, and they most likely won’t avail themselves of a website that will set them straight. I would venture to say that if some people did look at it, they’d just choose to disbelieve it, anyway. Allowing oneself to be set straight by the new website would necessarily mean that the news that one listens to is lying to or distorting the news, and that may be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.

Nevertheless, I still feel that it’s time for a website like this. This is a fabulous tool that can be sent back to anyone who disseminates any kind of Obama attack piece or hit piece filled with lies or misrepresentations. This is the political environment that we now exist in, and it is imperative that any negative spin and deliberate misinformation be met head on with the truth. Allowing anyone to believe or accept anything about Obama that isn’t true is doing a disservice to the person believing it and to Barack himself.

There will be a block of people who will never be convinced that anything is true but what they believe, and once we try to enlighten them or politely point them in the direction of truth, should they continue to accept the lie or refuse to entertain any other way of thinking, then it’s time to move on. This is a person that will not be a vote for Barack, anyway, and our energy should be more focused on people who are just a little more receptive to getting educated or expanding their mind even a tad.

In the Transition Period

I am probably like you, still coming down from the high of Barack securing the Democratic nomination last Tuesday night. Maybe it’s because of Hillary Clinton’s delayed concession and suspension of her campaign that has made it seem like this is still so recent, but I still feel like I’m basking in the glow of our great success.

I also recognize that there is so much more to do, and I’m preparing myself for the next phase. I have spent so much time at the Palo Alto Obama office, but since last Tuesday night when I celebrated with about a hundred of my closest friends, I haven’t done much. I did go out of town to see my newest grandson, but I’m back and I don’t want to burn too much daylight.

I have volunteered to be in charge of my neighborhood when I attended the grand opening of the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee office, and that was a fabulous event, but there is so much more to do. The Democratic National Convention in August seems so far off, and I am so excited to attend and represent my constituents and district as an Obama delegate, but I am starting to feel restless and I’ve got to get back into the groove I was in just last week.

I want to encourage any of you that feel a little lethargic like myself to push yourself. I’m ready to pivot into a new position, but I don’t know what that is just yet. I’m ready to do just about anything, but I could use a little help. Anyone who reads this from the campaign office, feel free to contact me and give me something important to do. I will be joining groups in my area registering voters, and I will be perusing the recent information that I received from the campaign of ways that I can participate and looking at mybarackobama.com as to what is going on around my area.

I received an email the other day from a lovely woman and a good friend of mine from the Silicon Valley/Palo Alto office, and she was expressing something that I also feel very strongly, that the friends and acquaintances that I’ve been fortunate enough to develop over the past six months have been so critical and important to me, that they really have become my family away from my at-home family. The camaraderie that we’ve shared and the ups and downs that we’ve experienced have brought us so close with one another, and I am almost desperate to get that feeling again.

But I’m not an unrealistic dreamer, and I can get so much personal satisfaction out of anything positive that I’ll be doing for the campaign. I am sufficiently emboldened when I see misinformation and lies spread about Barack, and it makes me more and more determined to make sure that everyone I know or come across at least hears the truth about who Obama is and what he stands for and plans to do for this country, and if they won’t listen to me, at least I will have tried.

I have no illusions that everyone can be convinced. There are a few people around me that think they know better, that somehow I’ve drunk the Obama Kool-aid and am just so naïve, but every one of these people (and they know who they are) have not followed Barack the way I have, they have not read his books, they don’t get their news from a variety of sources, and everything else that allows us to be well informed about what the truth is. These same people have relatively no knowledge of who McCain is, either.

I find it close to incredible that the same people who are so frightened of change or anything new are also the same people so woefully uninformed, so culturally and political unaware and so smugly clinging to agendas of years past. I will consider it my personal mission to make sure that all of these people hear from me, and if they don’t wish to open their minds, so be it. Like I said, at least I will have tried. If I add this responsibility to the list of things that I know I’ll be doing in the coming months leading up to the general election, I doubt that I’ll have much time to be in a funk for too much longer.

Three Words: The Supreme Court

With all of the negatives that are a major part of the McCain/Republican ticket, there is no more important distinction between Barack Obama and John McCain than who gets the chance to nominate the next Supreme Court justices. With six of the nine justices over 70 years old, and with at least two really pushing the age envelope and wishing to enjoy the twilight years of their lives, this issue is not mere conjecture; it is almost a certainty.

While I don’t believe for a moment that millions will cross over and vote for a John McCain if they no longer have Hillary Clinton on the Democratic ticket, I do believe that some percentage of disgruntled Democrats will do just that, and it is all of our responsibilities to make certain that we express in the strongest terms a vote for McCain will give him the next nominations to the Supreme Court. This would be nothing short of disaster http://www.alternet.org/democracy/85432/.

I don’t know about you – and I realize that you loyal readers already get this – but I like my civil liberties. I don’t want indiscriminate spying on any supposed enemies of the Republican Party, and although I am not a fan of abortion, I vehemently support a woman’s right to choose the procedure if that suits her. I kind of like three separate branches of government independent of each other, and I don’t support any additional power for the executive branch and the president.

It is imperative that we get the word out to all Obama detractors and naysayers who even intimate that they may just go over and defiantly vote for McCain and what this choice will cost all of us, and along with the laundry list of negatives that McCain carries with him into the general election, maybe we can bring these passionate but misguided Democrats back into the fold.

Last Night Was So Exciting

As the day went along yesterday, it was obvious that Barack Obama would have more than enough delegates to put him over the top and that he would be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. I was getting more and more excited as I waited for my wife to get home from work so that we could share the moment together. We decided to just spend the evening with our family…so we headed down to the Palo Alto office of the Silicon Valley for Obama Headquarters!

I always know what kind of crowd to expect when I have to circle the block to find a parking place, but as my wife and I walked toward the office, I could see that people were pressed against the front window. I immediately saw a number of my family members and hugs and kisses were shared as we made our way a little more toward the middle of the room. Two TVs were tuned to CNN in two rooms as the overflow crowd cheered and soaked up this historic moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvaqLl7L6s

Two Bay Area TV stations and several photographers from other media outlets were present to capture the festivities. The above link is from KTVU Channel 2, and the people that Reporter Lloyd LaCuesta chose to interview were a good cross-section of the diverse and enthusiastic crowd. I knew the vast majority of the people in the office last night, and I wouldn’t have shared this evening with anyone else in the world.

KGO-TV, Channel 7 also was present and filed its own report. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZubkjMDZ64g Interestingly enough, they also covered the San Jose Clinton office, and the handful of people celebrating there set a completely different tone on a night when the rest of the world acknowledged that we had a new nominee. I only wish that those dedicated and passionate Clinton supporters would have been at the Palo Alto office last night to be warmly welcomed by all of us and to witness and feel part of the feeling of change and unity that was present last night in each and every one of us.

I have spent countless hours at the Silicon Valley for Obama office calling half the states in this country, most recently Montana. It was sometimes frustrating, always exhilarating and never dull. I shared laughter, camaraderie and even some anxious moments with my ever-expanding group of friends and colleagues in Palo Alto, and still reminisce as I remember the South San Francisco Obama office that I spent so much time in before that. Those people are spectacular, too.

I have accumulated about ten Obama shirts, numerous buttons for all occasions, and had the privilege of traveling twice to Nevada and once to Texas. I have walked about a dozen neighborhoods and knocked on thousands of doors. I have stood behind or in front of tables registering voters and selling Obama gear too many times to count, and most importantly, I’ve gotten my wife and two daughters to participate in the process and to jump on the Obama bandwagon toward victory.

I have had the pleasure and the thrill of being at three Obama rallies, the last one getting the opportunity to meet Barack and shake his hand. I also had the unique honor to donate the furniture the filled the Oakland Obama headquarters, the first Bay Area Obama office, and I was very humbled when I went there for the first time to see the office humming with people utilizing that furniture.

I will so proudly head to Denver in August to represent my neighbors, my Congressional District and yes, my extended family that I was with last night to support my choice from the beginning, Barack Obama as he officially becomes the Democratic nominee for president. I have been so very blessed since I became involved with the Obama campaign last March, and the friends that I have made from working and hanging out in three Bay Area Obama offices, in addition to two offices in Nevada and two in Texas, will last well beyond the time of this campaign.

Barack's Veepstakes

Today is the day we’ve been waiting for…the day that Barack Obama crosses the threshold and is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency. I can state very honestly that I was never certain that this day would come, and I think anyone who claims to have been confident when this all started that Obama would be the nominee when all of the primaries and caucuses were over is just blowing smoke.

This is a historic day on so many levels. We have the first African American presidential nominee in 232 years, and he has defeated his chief rival, a woman who proved that she is as qualified as any man in this country to challenge for the highest office in the land, and more importantly, has opened the door and taken the stigma away from any future woman who wishes to run for president in the future.

The next step for Barack Obama is to take some time to let this moment sink in. He needs to determine how best to state his case against John McCain and the mighty Republican spin machine that has been so effective in the past two presidential contests. Although Hillary Clinton so magnanimously has announced that she is now willing to graciously accept the vice-presidency, Barack should take her offer and all other suitors under advisement. He is in no rush to decide something so fraught with controversy and importance.

I honestly feel that Hillary Clinton would not make the best choice for VP, and my reasons are very simple. The main reason is that I don’t think Barack should take any active and sitting senator. The margin in the US Senate is just too slim, and although a Hillary Clinton or a Jim Webb would most likely be replaced by a Democrat, their stature and prominence in the Senate has already been established and would be sorely missed.

There are several other reasons which I will not state here, but suffice it to say that they don’t rise to the level of importance that Obama should not select someone else from the Senate. The Democratic ticket simply should not contain two senators. I can guarantee that John McCain will not select a sitting senator as his VP.

Ultimately, when Barack looks at the field of possible vice-presidential candidates, he should look at someone who is seasoned, has military or foreign affairs experience and is well liked. He should potentially select someone whose state’s viability for a Democratic win is in question and picking that state’s governor – a Ted Strickland of Ohio or a Tim Kaine of Virginia -- will more likely bring that state into the Democratic fold. New York, for example, is already an expected win for Obama without adding a Clinton to the ticket.

I will be in Denver as an Obama delegate from the State of California and will vote to nominate Barack Obama for president of the United States and will accept his vice-presidential candidate of choice, but I would so strongly encourage him to take his time, listen to his trusted advisors and recognize that this choice is his, solely his and is not the choice of anyone else, whether their name is Clinton, Smith or Jones.