Change

Last night - we were glued to our televisions right along side millions of people - waiting for what has felt to be inevitable, yet inconceivable.

As the 9pm hour chimed in ... NBC had called the race for Barack Obama.

They flashed it to Grant Park in Chicago where the crowd was absolutely electric.

And then ...

The music ...

Barack Obama's theme song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" started playing -- and that's when the moment hit me. The place erupted. People hugging. People crying. People in celebration. In disbelief. In amazement. In excitement.

The nation had just spoken.

Change is coming.

The events of last night will take a very long time to realize. History was made. The sacrifice of hundreds of millions throughout this nation's history has finally the top of a seemingly unattainable mountain top.

Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled.

A dream that so many never thought could ever happen in their life time. A dream marred by an incredibly intolerable time in our nation's history. A history full of extreme hate, racism, violence and epic division that has stained our great nation and for what it stood for. What emerged last night from the dark blue panels in the expansive sea of people in Grant Park in Chicago was the culmination of the strides humanity has taken in the name of freedom and equal opportunity. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's dream is finally realized.

While the punditry continued to expound on what happened to the Republican Party, we have to look beyond what happened last night as we witnessed John McCain's gracious concession speech that was followed by him falling on his sword. Taking complete and personal responsibility for what happened. But that's not what happened. McCain is a piece of a larger process that has plagued the overriding failure of the Republicans long before the 2008 Presidential Election. When we examine the core reasons why people wanted change, it had very little to do with John McCain. It didn't even have anything to do with his bundle of energy running mate Sarah Palin. History could show us where the failings of the Republican party were and it does. Map the trend that started as early as two years ago when several Republicans were bested from their seats in the House and the Senate and therein we find the core problem with the Republican party:

The Republicans are seriously out of touch and Americans couldn't have been more plain: we want change.

Not just a change in the course direction of this country.
Not just a change in our policy in Iraq and abroad.
Not just a change in how the country handles its current economic crisis.

But Americans demand a change from our "red-meat" political process that perfected the way to slander your opponent without even offering a shred of platform or policy -- which comes straight from "The Architect's" consummate playbook. This "divide and conquer" mentality of the Republican party has given way to the "united we stand" mantra of Barack Obama and the Democratic party.

It's my hope that the way Barack Obama pledged his way to the White House will become a template of what the American Dream is about. It's not about flinging mud in the form of the Reverend Wrights of the world. It's not about trying to label your opponent as "palling around with terrorists." It has everything to do with substance. John McCain and Sarah Palin simply couldn't articulate a message of how they were different than their former leader: George W. Bush. John McCain and Sarah Palin played from Karl Rove's playbook -- which worked in 2000 and 2004, but failed miserably in 2008.

Americans caught on to that little ploy and could read through it.

No one cares about what an errant reverend said.
No one cares about what happenstance meeting may or may not have occurred with someone aptly labeled being a "terrorist."
No one cares about what labels you try to slap on like "redistributioner," "Socialist," "Marxist."

If you don't say anything of substance, nothing of policy and are reduced to merely flinging "red-meat" at your opponent ... then Americans demanded change from that disappointing Republican ideology.

Americans demanded change.

And they got it.