A woman I know forwarded me some mass emails she said she received from her “ultra-conservative” aunt in the Ozarks. These were hate-filled, racist depictions of Obama, all the usual stuff, with accusations of him being a communist thrown in for an overall kitchen-sink effect. I don’t know personally know anyone who responds to such emails favorably. But I’ve seen them around. They were at a KKK-attended white supremacist rally I was at (as a reporter) in Jena, Louisiana in January (on Martin Luther King Day, no less). They were waving nooses around and shouting the “N” word, wearing big black afro wigs and they too, were saying Barack Obama is a “communist.” Not so far off, really, from the McCain campaign.

I don’t agree with everything in the Obama platform. I take issue with some of his policies. But like everyone else who has become taken with him, I am—I think the word is grateful—for his ability to inspire and bring people together. There is a lot of what Oprah likes to call healing going on in this candidacy. Healing over race hatred. And healing over the death of promise, as in the triple assassinations we experienced in the 60s. Obama is far from King, but in ways he’s not so far from a Kennedy; he’s the first politician to come along in a long time who appeals to the better instincts in people, who revs up the young, who makes us feel, as Madonna put it, “shiny and new.” Let’s hope he can live up to the faith he has inspired.

Somebody gave me an Obama bobble-head for my birthday. Every time it senses the slightest pressure, it starts shouting, “Yes—we—can!” in Obama’s voice. It’s sitting on the kitchen counter, where a lot of activity takes place, so every so often it just starts going off: “Yes—we—can!” Somehow fitting. It’s really this sentiment that has caught on. It’s a phrase that sums up the essence of the American experience, from the first settlers to Emerson to JFK. Obama gets it. Anybody who questions how much of a “real American” he is better think about that slogan. It’s the better part of ourselves, and the only thing that can save us. It’s about the rebirth of promise. I just pray Obama is truly worthy of the notion, and that there isn’t someone, or some ones, out there who want to kill off our hopes all over again.