Historical significance

So Senator Barack Obama has officially become the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2008 presidential election. There is so much historical significance in the dates of the convention and in the candidates (Hillary and Obama) themselves.

Obama:

• He will be the first black President in the history of the United States if he wins in November.
• His age and inexperience have been points of debate, but he will have a chance to reassure voters later today in his acceptance speech.
• The most recent polls have shown him and McCain in an incredibly tight race.
• He chose Biden no doubt to appeal to the voters who voted for Hillary, among whom many are blue-collar whites.
  

JFK:

• He was the first Catholic president.
• Voters were wary of his age and inexperience, but he reassured them in his acceptance speech.
• The Kennedy/Johnson ticket won by a hair.
• The choice of LBJ as VP was intended to appeal to southern whites as well.
  

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Aug. 26, 1929: With the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, women won the right to vote in the U.S. In 2008, Hillary was close to becoming the first female presidential candidate of a major political party, putting those 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling.

Aug. 27: LBJ's 100th birthday. He fought for and helped pass legislation on such issues as civil rights, healthcare for all Americans, improved education, restraint in foreign policy, and environmental conservation. All of these issues are still relevant today. He also increased American involvement in what was to become an unpopular war (Vietnam); there's the highly unpopular Iraq War II today which most Americans want the next president to end.

Aug. 28, 1963: MLK Jr. gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech on the National Mall. Obama will give his acceptance speech today, 45 years later; his nomination is seen by some as the culmination of the efforts of so many leaders of the Civil Rights movement, including King. Obama himself had worked as a community organizer in south Chicago, where many poor African-American families reside.

Aug. 29: 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans. Many attribute the dearth of federal aid by the Bush Administration to the fact that the most greatly affected were low-income blacks.

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Also, Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday is in February of 2009, just a few weeks after the inauguration of the next president. If Obama wins, the significance of that will be incredible. Both are/were tall, lanky men from Illinois, hardened by difficult circumstances in childhood, and both are/were hardworking and intelligent. Lincoln helped free the slaves, and no doubt because of that, Obama is able to run for the nation's highest office today.

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Bill's right. History is on Obama's side. What a year 2008 has been!

Whaddya mean the Olympics have just ended? What are we going to watch on TV from now on?

That aside, what an amazing two weeks and two days it's been. It's a bittersweet feeling knowing that the Olympics that China has spent decades campaigning for and seven years preparing for are finally over after 16 days. Awe-inspiring events like these always seem to end too soon, but it's just that fleeting quality which leaves strong impressions in people's memory.

It's London's turn now. Let's see them top Beijing 2008.