God damn! So THAT is what a President sounds like!?

What an incredible speech President Obama gave last night. I kept jumping up and down (inside) and shouting "Yes we CAN! Yes we CAN".

I found myself thinking about that last guy. What the hell did he ever talk about? All I can remember is that he was going to foster a sense of bi-partisanship in Washington DC and he was going to stop drugs in sports. Based on all the hoopla about A-rod last week, it seems he couldnt even get that one right.

Ive been critical of Obama both before and after the election but it was hard to find fault in that speech. He addressed so many huge issues and conveyed the sense that we could do better, that America could do better. I got caught up in the moment and the moment was awesome.

Then that Republican guy came on the radio. Based on his state and his thick Southern drawl, I pictured some fat, white, good-ole' boy whose jowls shake as he tries to explain the gospel of the far-Right.

His words were the same-old, same-old BS about being fiscally responsible and saving the day by cutting taxes. No surprises and no common sense.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the other room and looked at the TV. Who stole my American and put a foreigner in his place? Holy cow. That accent and that face just dont go together, they are like matter and anti-matter. So bizarre.

Wait a minute, what the hell? The Republican party criticized Obama for being a "foreigner" and possibly even a terrorist. The Republican part fought immigration reform and continuously alleges that immigrants are coming over to this country to steal jobs and drop off babies that then steal our education and health care. The Republicans insisted we spend millions of dollars on a stupid wall to keep color'ds out...

And then here is this Indian-American governor?! A guy who was conceived in another country and only arrived here to be born. His parents sucked up our jobs while he sucked up our good Southern education. Not only is he telling us this stuff but he acts proud of it? Apparently Hell is still frozen over from the election...

Has everyone got amnesia? Am I the only person that saw the unimaginable irony of this choice? So strange.

All joking aside, my takeaway is that the country is entering a new phase. For me that is a welcome change from the last phase even though strong vestiges of the last phase stubbornly linger on.

Both speakers represented minorities. The country elected a black man. The Republican Party seemed to conclude that they needed so much change, they too elected a black man to chair the party and then chose a 1st generation American from India to deliver the speech. These are huge changes for us as a nation.

But the biggest changes were in the speech itself. The President's speech was all about being honest about our problems, facing our gigantic debts, and making changes, dare I say sacrifices, to make things better.

After years of hearing the White House say one thing and do another, in secret usually, perhaps this is just more of that. But at least the things Obama talked about were new. Like how we love our troops AND we are going to pay them more and give them better health care. So if the talk was new, maybe the action that follows will be new too.

But today is a new day and the reality of the challenges we face as a country are daunting. It is one thing to get excited at a speech and quite another thing to sit through the long, slow months and years of the journey. I am just thankful that we at long last appear to be heading in the right direction.