Today's the day.

"A memorable day. We do not know yet for what. Perhaps for the disintegration of the country, perhaps for another proof that the North is timid and mercenary, perhaps for demonstration that Southern bluster is worthless. We cannot tell yet what historical lesson the event of November 6, 1860, will teach, but the lesson cannot fail to be weighty."

~diary entry from a New York supporter of Abraham Lincoln

We've been hearing the Kennedy comparisons, but I'm enjoying the Lincoln comparisons more: senators from Illinois, country at a tipping point, painstaking intellectual rigor, and of course, the issue of equality.

Given the rivers of money involved and the chasm between the two campaigns in terms of execution, reach, efficiency, and ability to remain on the offensive, the McCain campaign should be ruined. But it's not. It's existence doesn't just speak to tenacity, but to a very real and insidious current flowing through American minds; the same politics of fear, contempt, and division that brought us the rise of DeLay, Hastert, Gonzalez, Wolfowitz, Pearl, Bush 43, et al. The fact that their ilk could be elected to anything higher than mayor of Wasilla speaks to our greatest deficiencies; deficiencies which threaten us still, maybe more than ever, today.

From the instant I heard about Barack Obama's keynote convention speech I knew that this guy was in the pipeline, that he was destined to run for president, and with my first impression I was fully on board with that. So, I've spent the last two years working to overcome that initial buy-in and my disappointment with his few missteps with a sometimes dogged and absurd openmindedness, partly to ferret out what candidates might actually do instead of what they say to get elected, but mostly to avoid what I fear will be crushing disappointment because in this case the bar has been set so high. Many believe this is a forgone conclusion, but it's not. Lincoln felt the same way, nervous to the last minute, wondering even if he'd carried his hometown of Springfield. Obama said as much the same thing the other day with his 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory' quip. We could very easily throw this thing away, today, bowing to our weaknesses and choosing the devil we know.

C'mon America. Surprise me.