Migod! He did it!!

Perhaps the eight American flags were a bit much under the circumstances, but he certainly delivered a down-to-earth talk on the racial divides in our country and managed to describe his relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in a way that seemed (to me at least) genuine and loving.

I doubt that my sister in Maryland would be satisfied, but I was reasonably comfortable after the speech--or maybe the better word is uncomfortable. He laid out in stark contrast to what so many of us see as the "Red, White and Blue" land of opportunity ... a land of serious lack of opportunity for those whose skin color is less than lily white.

The speech was very personal--sometimes uncomfortably so. Barack Obama is all of us! He contains something of all of us--black, white and in-between--in his being. And, although he highlighted contradictions, it--and he--seemed very, very much in sync with his surroundings. Of course, all of this was in the hope of muting the contradiction between his call for unity and his pastor's videotaped rants that threaten to collapse his campaign.

He used incredibly eloquent words to describe how he has been able to have unconditional love for his [former] pastor and disagree with his rants at the same time.

But mostly he discussed the broader issues of racism, and in that regard, he painted an honest portrait--from what I've observed over the past 73 years--and that truth was the sum substance of his speech--although it went on longer than most Presidential addresses.

One issue, one point of view and a single goal for us all.

I will still probably pull for Hillary and McCain to be the finalists in the weeks ahead, but I'm no longer fearful of the tall and skinny lawyer from Illinois.

He'll do all right, no matter what ... and that's good, I think.