(Denver, Colorado - 10.3ß p.m. local time)
Touching down in Denver after a 9 hour flight from London, I got picked up by Zak and settled in the house of Tony, a local Denver Obama supporter that hosts people from all over the country. The first thing Tony said as I entered his house, was that although he has no CNN or C-Span, he listened to Michelle on his old TV and was moved to tears by her words. A pity that I missed this great, compassionate speech live which went down just a few blocks away, but I checked it online. Her vibrancy and charisma make her a better speaker than Obama. I remember that he remarked this himself jokingly at the Oprah event in Columbia, SC in December. The fact that his wife is a better public speaker is known to the whole world now.
What struck me about Denver Airport was the fact that when you walk from the plane exit to immigration through the terminal, there are huge portraits of Native American chiefs from Cheyenne, over Sioux to Apache and Navaho. The first nation people even greet you with a music soundtrack of their tribal music and dances. Its a bizarre and unique experience, and as I noticed a lot of the European tourists that came on that plane were deeply irritated.
America was built on the biggest land grab and genocide in history. Just because it happened 400 years ago does not make it less cruel and it was those European settlers from Denver who stole the land from the native tribes. To have such an open debate and visual representation speaks of an attitude of remembering about the crimes of the past. Maybe the US is ready for a black president. Michelle Obama surely is one of the most sexiest and smart woman I have listened to in a very long time. That alone qualifies Obama to win this. But as Rev. Johnson said 8 month ago about his chances: the soil must be fertile enough to make this change real.