{Please read this post in the spirit it is intended, somewhat satirical and a little exaggerated at times to make a point often missed in today’s political climate.}

This has truly been a historic week, although not for the reasons that you will hear in the media. Most of the political messages this week were in the form of the great speech given by Obama and the message of change that he brings; how 85,000 people filled a stadium and cried as he spoke. The other messages are about how dark horse VP nominee Sarah Palin is exciting the Republicans because of her pro-life, pro-gun credentials or how McCain is purely playing to the disaffected Clinton crowd (or crazy). My wife, for the first time in her life did a google search on a political candidate, but not for any of the reasons listed by the political elite. She does not care about Obama’s change message or popularity, nor does she care that Palin is pro-life and pro-gun, nor was she a disaffected Hillary supporter. For the first time in our adult life we will be excited to cast our ballot in the presidential election, instead of doing it out of duty.

For our entire adult lives we have been given the President/Vice-president choice between political elites. We have had to chose between wealthy people that either earned their money or inherited it (does it really matter?), or the Ivy League educated politicians who have been targeting the White House since they were in college. I have watched as the financial and educational elite fuel their political power while standing on the sidelines as special interest groups, with the media there every step of the way to help hone their message and convey it to the ignorant masses that are not rich or “well educated”. We have then had the blessed experience of listening to their campaigns criticize their opponent for not understanding middle America, while they talk up their own experience and how even though they are politically elite they somehow understand. At that point we have rolled our eyes and tune them all out, their message lost in the glare of their own hypocrisy. For the last few decades we have watched the political elite destroy this country, some have been Democrats and others Republicans, somehow, it does not seem to matter. I had written off the federal government; I saw no way for a “real” American to get elected, one that actually understood my issues and problems. I assumed that the ruling of this country would be left to the elite, and I began to ignore both parties and longed for the day when the 2 party system would be gone (editorial note: this is the fundamental reason I support public campaign financing and have written about it before).

In one single instance this week a new dawn awoke and hope has returned. The political commentators (media, politicians, experts) will never understand what happened that fateful Friday morning. What all of us average Americans saw was not a pro-life, pro-gun, get the Hillary vote, galvanize the conservatives’ political pawn. What we saw that day was a family on the biggest stage in America shell shocked they were even standing there. What we saw was a woman that got involved in local politics because she wanted to make a difference and then when she happened to get appointed to a state board she called out the political elite for fraud and forced them out of office. She then ended up as governor and now as a vice-president candidate. What we saw was one tough family because they had experienced what we have experienced. She was on the biggest stage in the world and we all knew that she did not expect to be there or want to be there; she was there because we needed her. She was not educated at Harvard or Yale or Stanford, but simply got a degree from some college in Idaho before starting a family and began the typical American experience. For the first time a presidential ticket candidate has to worry about how to pay the mortgage while their family spends full-time campaigning for the White House. For the first time the American dream became a reality, a non ivy league educated, middle-class person wondering how they would pay for retirement could finally end up as President. As I stated, my wife did her first google search for a politician and it was not Barack Obama, it was for Sarah Palin.

The political elites will have a field day. They will make all sorts of claims about experience and background, but with every word they dig their own grave and prove my point (they already have). I have never believed that the battle was between conservative and liberal, democrat and republican, that has all been a farce by the political elite to divert the real conversation. The true battle in our country is between the ruling political elite and the average citizen. For the first time since I could vote I now have a candidate that understands what I really want; not because they know what words I want to hear, but because they have lived what I have lived. In a day when there are no political hero’s, one sprang upon the scene. The party bosses, media, political consultants and other political elites will never understand what just happened, but that is OK because I do.