An Incredible First Night In Denver...And Tragedy Averted

If you were one of the millions that watched tonight's speeches (or at least just Ted Kennedy's moving 10 minutes and Michelle Obama's passionate oration) then you know we all saw something incredible in the making. While the media has been trying to frame the convention as an overtly negative, internally divisive event, the reality of what is going on in Denver is anything but. Tonight I heard hope and American stories from Senator McCaskill, a heart-warming few minutes from the man who hired Barack as a community organizer 23 years ago and the cutest thing of all, the Obama kids up on stage talking to their daddy via satellite for all to see.

On stage and throughout the convention, there is the hope for a new day in American politics. Obama speaks to issues while mercilessly defending his character from the uncalled for dirty tricks that McCain applies to this election in order to win through the appeal to fear. Since McCain has nothing to offer our country but more of the same that Bush has given us, he has decided to play in the lowest cesspool of mud that is available in political discourse. Well, Barack Obama isn't going to stand for it and neither are we.

Yet not everyone feels the same way. Some Americans out on the fringe of society hear McCain's call to their fears and ignorant ideas. Tonight, thanks to the great work by Denver, Colorado and Federal authorities, a plot to kill Barack Obama was broken up. Four white supremacists were arrested with various instruments of death, but it was their meth that really gave them up. So their plot probably wouldn't have succeeded, but the fact that it existed is horrifying enough.

We must stop playing to the worst characteristics in our society and stick with the best. What I heard tonight at the convention pointed in the direction of the latter, but all I hear from the other side is nothing of what we need to live in a decent and just society.