Shortly after the 18 and 0 New England Patriots became the 19 and 1 Patriots, the sports media began asking how the Patriots "lost" the Super Bowl, instead of how the New York "won" it. So before I do a rundown of Hillary, I want to make sure and start with the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Almost more important than the "how" is the "why." Why did Barack Hussein Obama deserve to win the nomination? And that's no easy question to answer.

I remember back to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his emergence onto the national scene. I remember sitting there watching the Democratic Convention, as our country was at the height of the Karl Rove led culture wars that will be what Bush's domestic agenda is most remembered for. I remember wishing that we had someone who was an answer to all of that nonsense. And from the moment Barack started speaking, I knew that we had found that answer.

As his speech went on and he talked about worshipping an awesome God in the red states and coaching little league in the blue states, and as he remarked about how we could make this a more just society for everyone, I remember getting goose bumps and realizing that not only had we found the answer to the brutal culture war of Rovian politics, the Democrats had finally reconnected with the spirit and energy that seemed to disappear after RFK's assassination.

So when he announced his candidacy in December, I was both excited and apprehensive. I was excited because he seemed to have everything I was looking for in a candidate. But I was nervous because where he had the charisma and eloquence to be the president, he was going to have to answer about his lack of extensive experience, having served for just a few years in the US Senate and in the Illinois State Senate.

It wasn't long after he announced his run that I discovered that there were numerous people out there, who for similar or different reasons, felt the same way I did about Barack's candidacy.

But this whole time, I think I'm being realistic in all of this. I know that he's setting extremely high expectations for himself and that we may be asking too much of him. But I don't know, sometimes I have to wonder. We get these politicians every so often that come along and grab us by our collective lapels and wake us up. I think he has the potential for greatness. And that potential more than makes up any supposed lack of experience that he may or may not have.

I think the experience question is the one piece that gives me pause. But as he's said numerous times, it has more to do with judgment than experience. And so far, he's shown to have wonderful judgment, on everything from opposing the Iraq War to his willingness to engage in more active negotiations with oppressive countries.

I also get completely jazzed by a candidate who says that he'd put a Lincoln-esque "team of rivals" in his cabinet. While Barack is pretty progressive, I think it's great that he seems so open to putting those who disagree with him in his cabinet. Or maybe not those who disagree with him but those who may have differing opinions on his cabinet. It's also a very Kennedy thing to do. It was because Kennedy had such a diverse group of opinion that he was able to comprehensively look at the Cuban Missile Crisis from numerous different angles.

I'm getting way ahead of myself.

It wasn't long after Iowa that I started to really believe that this thing could actually happen. And from that point, the why he deserved to win mixed with the how he won.

more tomorrow...

- Matthew