Obama Rising: An American Leader Revisited One Year After "The Speech"

Exactly one year ago....at the very hour that I write this....an American political star was born. Yes, one year ago, Barack Obama, then an Illinois State Senator and candidate for the US Senate, inspired the entire United States with his call to our collective soul....

"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

I remember where I was when I heard it.....in our family room, grateful that one leader truly, deeply, honestly wanted to unite this country. Where were you when you heard the speech?

Since his swearing-in as 99th in seniority among 100 US Senators, Barack Obama has wisely kept a low-profile while he learns the Senate ropes. He's a reluctant A-list celebrity, who commutes home to Chicago every weekend, and he receives 250 speaking invitations a week. (Yes, a week.) He's recently begun to accept a few of those invitations, and he ventured down to the United Nations to lobby for aid and support for Darfur.

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of his electrifying speech, I wrote a brand-new profile of Senator Barack Obama to bring you up-to-speed on his Senate accomplishments and committees, recent notoriety, and his thinking and stances on the issues.

The new Barack Obama profile also gives you a glance at his growing up, and his personal life today with wife Michelle and their two young daughters. (Did you know that, as a teenager, he scooped ice cream at Baskin-Robbins?)

And a special bonus for you at the profile.....a link to the text of Barack Obama's 2004 Democratic Convention speech. Enjoy!