This politics thing is insane. Here I am, back from the Kingdom, having had a politics free fortnight and a great time with Mar and the kids and my parents. Yet here I am at almost three in the morning, watching the intrigue of politics three thousand miles away. From the day three years ago when I picked up Barack Obama's book in an airport in San Francicso, I've been hugely excited by this extraordinary young African American Democrat. I have believed that he can give Hilary Clinton a real run for her money in the Democratic primaries.
In the last ten minutes it's becoming a reality. Both CNN and our beloved Fox News have just called the state for Obama, with an astonishing 7% lead over John Edwards and Clinton. He now has 37%, to 30% each for the others. The turnout is huge, and a real indication of hope is that the number of young people turing out is the best in years.
On RTE's Primetime programme tonight, Samantha Power, that magical Irish woman who packed St. Canice's Cathedral in August called it like this. The infectious enthisiasm she had then and now may just prove right. For those of us enthusiastic about how new ideas and a lack of sticking with the old ways of doing things in politics, a guy who has only been a Senator for three years but who's now threateningfto become the US' first ever black President breathes life into politics. Roll on New Hampshire!
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