That was a very impressive performance, all the way around, by Barack Obama last night.

There has been a lot written and said about Obama’s performance last night already. I don’t have that much to say that really adds anything to the conversation. He certainly is a very good, if not great, speaker. I was going to say “orator”, but then I am not sure if that is really what he was doing. Perhaps… Anyway, great stuff. It must have been very electric to be there. I was also struck by this history of the moment. Here is a non-Caucasian speaking in front of a multi-racial audience of about 85,000, and there were huge numbers of white people, both old and young, who were on their feet, cheering and quite a few with tears in their eyes. I lived in Mississippi and Alabama in the 70’s, and although it is more than obvious that the United States has a very long way to go to make race a total non-issue in our society, I think this is a huge step forward.

Here is one of my favorite quotes that I have seen so far about last night. This is from a story in the Seattle P-I.

"You young ones, you think this is natural," said Mimms, the octogenarian. "But to see old white men in red ties saying, 'I pass on a legacy to a 46-year-old black man,' it's unbelievable to me. He is talking about being president of the United States. It just blows me away."

That’s pretty cool.

[As a totally irrelevant aside, this is post number 500 at Barking Rabbits. Three Musketeers bars all around!]