"The Audacity of Hope" -- Newsweek profile of Barack Obama | Link
"The Candidate: Barack Obama" -- New Yorker | Link

Looking back at what turned out to be a rather depressing year politically, the newly-elected and very junior U.S. Senator from Illinois stands out as a story that gives me a little bit of hope.  Never one to miss an obvious play on words, I have to wonder -- will Barack turn out to deliver more hype than hope?  I think that at the time of the DNC, the liberal faithful knew that something was lacking in the Kerry campaign--it lacked any sort of soul.  We cheered for Kerry because he's a good man, to be sure, but not because he got the blood pumping like your Bill Clintons, Barack Obamas, or even your Ted Kennedys.  In the end, that missing intangible factor might have been worth a couple million votes, but to be honest, I doubt there was any Democratic candidate who could have defeated Bush in 2004.  Perhaps the tree of American liberalism must be refreshed from time to time with the political blood of ... well, the entire party this time around.  My New Year's wish is that Barack's hope is an omen of a shifting tide in American politics -- even if it takes several more election cycles to take full form, a truly renewed Democratic Party espousing liberal social and economic values would be worth the wait.

And then I listened to our sitting president explaining the logistical struggles of aiding the thousands of people suffering in the wake of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia in his fumblin' bumblin' good ol' country boy English on the radio this afternoon.  Suddenly, I can't wait for 2005.  Happy New Year.