Barack Did His Part, Now Let's Do Ours

Written by: Kate Drazner on Aug 29, 2008 8:12 PM EDT

Although I live in Denver, I did not get to go to Invesco Field to see Barack Obama's acceptance speech. I did, however, watch it in my living room, perched on the edge of my sofa, crying and clapping the whole time (like a crazy person). I couldn't help it- I was caught up in the sensation of watching this man talk and thinking, this man is the next President of the United States.

But then, when it was over, it hit me: he's not the next President of the United States...yet. While Obama did everything he needed to do in Denver, and then some- clearly define his economic policies, mitigate the opposing ideologies around contentious issues like abortion and gay marriage, directly debunk popular conservative myths about raised taxes, aggressively challenge John McCain, tell us his own humble American story, all the while standing strong, confident and earnest in front of 75,000 viewers - this by no means we can just sit back and relax. The increased support for Obama after his speech may be reflected in the polls in the next week, but we can't forget what a tight race this is - and we can't forget about the Republican propaganda machine which knows no ethical boundaries.

So it's time for all of us who gazed upon Obama at that podium and thought, This man had better be the next President, to act fast. Progressive Future is gearing up to roll out an exciting and aggressive new Fall Campaign. In critical states across America, we're working to identify and organize more than 500,000 progressive Americans who want to move this country in a new direction - and making the case for why voting for Barack Obama is the way to do that. We're educating 1,000,000 citizens about where our leaders stand on critical issues, and were mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers to help turn out the progressive vote on November 4th.

But most of all, we're in this for good - we're committed to holding our leaders accountable for the progressive changes that they promise on the campaign trail, and putting the pressure on them after the election to follow through with that promise. After eight years of Bush, the stakes cannot be higher; America deserves more than empty promises aimed to win votes. Sign up here to help us elect leaders, like Barack Obama, who will: fix the financial disaster in Iraq; make sure that health care in this country is a right, and not a privilege; keep future generations safe from an impending energy crisis; give every child a quality - and equal - education; and restore the promise of the American dream.

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