CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 4, 2008 -- So it comes down to this. Shirtsleeve weather in Chicago on election day. The friends I see are on edge -- less anxiety than a sense that a deeply emotional moment lies just ahead, a profound change for our country. It makes one look back and wonder just what sort of inner confidence enabled Barack Obama to decide two years ago that he would take on the formidable Hillary Clinton and make his own run for the White House. Great leaders choose their moment and Barack chose his.
I had the opportunity to observe him from time to time when he was making the decision. He seemed steady and relaxed and handled it with a light touch, and since then he has displayed a consistency unmatched by any political figure in my time. As he says, "I don't get too high when things go well, or too low in the difficult times."
I went to my computer yesterday and found the speech Senator Obama made in November of 2005 at the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Awards -- in the Senate Caucus Room where both John and Robert Kennedy declared their candidacies for president. He seemed so young that day, but he transported the listeners with a deep perception of what RFK meant to his country and a wise understanding of how Bobby's ideals connected with the present. He told the story of Kennedy's famous trip to the Mississippi Delta with Medgar Evers in 1967 and how he wept at the desperate straits of a small child with swollen stomach. Kennedy turns to Evers and asks, "How can a country like this allow it?" and Evers responds, "Maybe they just don't know." Barack concluded with these words:
Bobby Kennedy spent his life making sure that we knew -- not only to wake us from indifference and face us with the darkness we let slip into our own backyard, but to bring us the good news that we have it within our power to change all this; to write our own destiny. Because we are a people of hope. Because we are Americans.
This is the good news we still hear all these years later - the message that still points us down the road that Bobby Kennedy never finished traveling. It's a road I hope our politics and our country begin to take in the months and years to come.
I walked out of that ceremony with Greg Craig, who had worked with both Edward and Robert Kennedy. We looked at one another with the shared idea that we had seen a man who could change our politics.
I wrote to Barack several days later. Here's the letter. Looking back, it seems as if today was somehow written in America's destiny.
November 28, 2005
Dear Barack:
It was good seeing you at the RFK Human Rights Awards. The occasion was very moving and I thought your speech was splendid.
Our country is in serious trouble and I was doing some math while you were speaking. John Kennedy was forty-three when he ran for President. Bobby was forty-three when he ran. You are going to be forty-seven in the year 2008 -- hurtling toward senior citizenship.
I know the decision to run for president is a personal one involving many considerations, and you will make that call. But I want to say that I believe this country is ready for change and that you are the man who can lead that change. And we don't need change in 2012 or 2016.
President Kennedy used to tell the story of the great French Marshall Lyautey who ordered a tree planted and when he saw it had not been done, asked why? The court gardener said, "The tree won't be fully grown for a hundred years." Lyautey replied, "Then, there is no time to lose; plant it today."One of my friends put it this way. If things broke right Obama could get a huge vote in the general election and make this country feel good about itself again.
I know that as things stand now you are not planning to run in 2008, but you should know that a growing number of Democrats see this as an inviting prospect. I spent much of 1967 watching Bob Kennedy weigh that same question and, in my view, you are needed just as much now as he was then.
These are troubled times, Barack, and I want you to know that your clear voice is a beacon of hope to many of us.
George Stevens, Jr.