A one year anniversary of sorts and a story

As I told Joe yesterday, I'm in the middle of celebrating an odd anniversary. The day before the Final Four 2007 was the day I came home from a bad situation in Japan. However, the good thing about anniversaries is that they force you to reflect on the events leading up to the anniversary. One thing, I've realized is that my time in Japan is a major reason why I support Obama for President. While over there, I heard Obama was running and was happy in the sense that maybe a strong anti-Clinton rival had the chance of emerging in the Democratic Party. However, it was the next two months (coincidentally my last two) that made me a believer. From the minute he announced he was running for President, one of my roommates (a foreigner) asked me what I thought of this minority candidate. I told him that I would probably support Obama. At that point, he asked me pointedly why only probably. He found Obama's positions on the major issues and pointed out that I shared most of them for the same reasons. He also pointed out that I was worldly just like the Illinois Senator and that some of my drunken comments seemed to reflect Obama's vision of hope. He then asked again why I couldn't say for certain that I would support the Illinois Senator. I told him I would think about it for a month or so. A week later at work, in the mixed level section of my work a Japanese student of mine asked me point blank what I thought of this Obama guy. I didn't answer and asked the room (there were only 5 students) what they knew of him and thought about him. They all thought the world of him from what they had seen and read of his speeches. At that point, I knew why Obama was the right choice for President. Here I was in late February of 2007 and the foreigners were telling me that Obama would restore credibility to the US's image. A few days later, I confided in my roommate that I had become a believer in Obama not just because the US needs him but the world needs him to have confidence in the US, again. Looking back, it's interesting that the rest of the world knew what this country was ready for before we did.