A glance 4 years back: Obama as the only hope.

Barring the unforeseen, Democrats shouldn't have to go through the same soul-searching as we did on November 3, 2004, when Kerry conceded. That day--Black Wednesday--was the last day I posted in my blog Metastrophe before sinking into torpor and cynicism. However, there were some who did not sink back--they started fighting. Looking back at my last entries, the seeds of change were clearly geminating. That day, I had referenced the Daily Kos post "Values," which, as you can guess, was about the problem of Dems talking about "values." invoked Obama's way out as the key:

We need to retake the language. We need to reframe the notion of "value".

That's why Obama's speech below is so brilliant. He speaks of God in a way that not just fails to offend this atheist, but inspires me. It's faith used for the purpose of living a good life, rather than faith wielded as a weapon against a whole class of people.

While I don't see the speech "below," it must refer to Obama's speech at the '04 convention. And if you peruse the 711 comments section on that post, there were already lots of people, as here or here, turning to Obama as the only real choice, predicting him to be the next president (wow, I muse, how can these folks have been so prescient? Was I really that out-of-the-know not to have noticed Obama back then?). There were already people using slogans like "Yes We Can" and even referencing groups like "Philly for Obama." Does this mean we can make the case that Obama's campaign, spiritually speaking, began the day Kerry lost the election? I think the Kos post reveals that, yes, we can.