'Change, on the Anniversary of a Dream'

By Samantha Hayes, NEWS 9

Aug. 28, 2008

DENVER -- On the eve of Barack Obama's highly anticipated acceptance speech here in Denver, I reread Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream Speech." Delivered 45 years ago today on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, King called to "let freedom ring." From the hilltops of New Hampshire and mighty mountains of New York, the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, and the "snowcapped Rockies of Colorado." 

And here we are. Tonight the Rocky mountains are in the background, and Barack Obama will stand in front of tens of thousands of people as the first black Presidential nominee of a major political party. 

"It's double history," said Mittie Jordan, who I spoke with on the convention floor after Obama joined running mate Joe Biden on stage Wednesday night. She won an opportunity to come to the convention through the Democratic Congressional Caucus Committee. "I expected it to be phenomenal," Jordan said of the way she anticipated her trip to Denver. "But I didn't realize that I would be overwhelmed."  Jordan told me she's especially excited to see history in the making after months of hard work as a neighborhood team leader for Obama's campaign in Cleveland, where she is from.  She sees Barack Obama as the right leader for America at the right time.  "He's black and white, he's Kenya and Kansas, He's a Christian, but also has Christian and Muslim roots." 

Jordan believes Obama's unique background and personal story will enable him to be a leader who can change people's lives.

"Change we can believe in" is the theme on this last day of the Democratic convention.  After days of  rousing speeches, the moment is now Obama's alone. Set against the backdrop of history, and on the brink of an unprecedented Presidential election, the expectations on this young Senator are a mile high.