Opinion

THE DREAM AFFIRMED

Barack Obama last night stood before 76,000 cheering Democrats in a Denver football stadium and harkened back to the day when “Americans from every corner of this land [stood] together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, [to] hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.”

Thus, 45 years to the day after after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal “I Have a Dream” address, did Obama, an African-American, formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination to seek the presidency of the United States.

It was a huge moment.

Race has split America since long before its founding. It precipitated a catastrophic Civil War and energized social upheaval for a century thereafter.

It continues to divide today, though equal rights and opportunity are not only the law, but largely the practice, too – as Obama’s ascension proves.

Now Obama must convince America that he’s the right man for the job.

No small task.

He must, as he noted last night, persuade the nation “on issue after issue . . . on health care and education and the economy” that he is right and the Republicans are wrong.

Last night, of course, was not the moment for specifics. Acceptance speeches – to paraphrase Mario Cuomo, a Democratic orator of some note – are the poetry of public life.

Soon enough, Obama will have to write prose – to hang specifics on the generalities that informed last night’s address.

* Last night, he promised “affordable, accessible health care for every American.”

Sounds good.

But how? Accessibility – code for virtually unlimited demand – is incompatible with affordability and, in the end, quality. It’s a matter of the market at work.

Nevertheless, said Obama, “If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.”

But, again, how?

* Last night, Obama promised that ‘in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”

But Obama’s Democratic Party, as a matter of policy, says “no” to any realistic fixes.

“No” to off-shore oil-drilling.

“No” to nuclear power.

It embraces fantasies – like cars that don’t use gasoline, but rather electricity that is produced . . . how, exactly? With windmills?

* Last night, Obama promised “to protect Social Security for future generations” – a worthy but elusive goal, given that Social Security and Medicare are close to bankruptcy and that the Democratic Party dismisses any and all proposed reforms and instead promises . . . expanded entitlements.

* Last night, Obama asserted, “We are the party of Roosevelt! We are the party of Kennedy! Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country!”

But that he had to reach back 69 and 47 years, respectively, to find Democratic presidents who were credible on issues of national security speaks to an institutional problem that can’t be erased by artful rhetoric.

So it went.

And so it will go.

Barack Obama, an able and attractive professional politician, is running for president. Last night he delivered a forceful speech, a political poem of substantial power and persuasiveness – and time enough later for the prose.

The senator’s presence on the stage was a remarkable personal achievement.

But, more than that, it was a ratification of Dr. King’s grand vision – an affirmation of the notion that, in America, there are no impossible dreams.

What a remarkable moment.