Raising the level of debate

Inauguration is (technically) tomorrow. As if you weren't aware of this previously, did you know I do newsflashes too, courtesy of Captain Obvious?

Anyway, redirecting back on point, none of it feels real. We've been anticipating this day for eight years, most of us, and now that it's finally here it feels like some gag piece out of The Onion. Is this really happening to us? Are we really about to have a Democrat in office again? Is it really time for a black president? Finally? I can't bring myself to get excited, because it doesn't feel like something I'm living.

I'll be honest. I was a Hillary supporter. Sometimes, I feel like that's a feeling that doesn't really go away. Once a Hillary supporter, always a Hillary supporter. I didn't like Obama until Election Night, despite voting for him. And let me just mention - not being ostentatiously gung-ho about Obama in Chicago is like being a Democrat in Alabama. It just isn't done. But being at Grant Park that night, hearing that extraordinary speech, being among all that celebration, living it...it's hard not to be won over. The screaming in the streets that night - you wouldn't believe it unless you were there. I would call the whole thing a religious experience if I wasn't an atheist. But in its own way, it was.

Since that night, Obama has been all over my life. My apartment building is directly across the street from the Chicago Hilton, which is the venue from which Obama has given all of his speeches during this transition period. When he and Joe Biden announced Hillary at Secretary of State, they were all right across the street from me. Walking to class every morning, I would pass a long long of news truck boasting gigantic satellite dishes. It's impossible not to be swept up in Obamanation Fever when you're stalking his motorcade with your roommates, bonding with various Obama fans on the streets. After awhile, it consumes you, whether you like it or not.

That said, I still have my problems with Obama. He can talk the talk, but I need to see him walk the walk, which has always been my main concern with him as a candidate. But he's surrounded himself with a fantastic team, and that's the first step, so I have faith. And really, right now, faith is the best we can do, and most he can ask of us.

On Tuesday, millions of people will line up behind this man and ask him to lead us. Expect him to lead us. And, in a way, to save us. On Tuesday, the work begins.

And so, to borrow the words of the greatest leader we never had --

"Break's over."

Thanks, President Bartlet.