a new kind of addiction

i've really broken out of my box this week. i've actually shared my opinions about the upcoming presidential election in two columns and in nightly conversations with friends.

i've been so caught up with the democratic national convention coverage that wolf blitzer's voice is the last thing i hear when i fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning, and soledad o'brien's is the first one i hear hours later.

it's crazy.

i've been watching cnn 24/7 and i like it.

i love james carville's home-spun i-told-you-so wisdom. i dig suzanne malveaux's professionalism. that sister knows what she's doing and it shows. i admire the way donna brazile makes her points without raising her voice and i like the way anderson cooper just chimes in with his intriguing little anecdotes.

they all live up to their mantra as the best political team on television.

tonight is the last night of the dnc and i fear that i'm going to have some sort of separation anxiety when i have to go back to watching "soul food" reruns instead on bet j with all of those annoying penis enhancement commercials.

as if!!

of course, the best part of this new addiction has been watching history unfold in living color. as someone who is old enough to remember the post-jim crow camelot era, it's been thrilling to see a black man rise to this level. i'm part of a generation that grew up thinking a black man in the white house wasn't exactly impossible, but it was highly improbable.

the highlights for me this week included the tribute to teddy kennedy, a man i met once backstage at the kennedy center in d.c. i loved every second of michelle obama's speech. it wasn't about her making me proud to be a black woman--my mom, grandmother, great-grandmother myra, aunt hat and all the mcdonald women that came before them that i never knew, are responsible for that. i just dug that she kept it real. political speeches--such as the ones joe biden has been making--are so, so scripted, filled with all of that old school political rhetoric.

rah, rah, rah.

i think michelle must have written hers all by herself. she made it personal and no one else would have been able to record those emotions on paper.

isn't she lovely? indeed she is.

and billary, they did their thing. i never bought into bill being the first black president and i'm not sure i entirely trust their motives now, but i do give them credit for sucking it up and putting the party before their massive egos.

but more than anything else, i've enjoyed talking to my friends. they've seen a different side of me this week. i've been up for the debate. every night before or after the speeches i've been on the phone with bo, bren, charlene, mary, mary and darcea discussing what was said, dissing the republican responses and trashing that sister who was crying after hillary clinton's speech the other night. i've also been engaging in online chats with my facebook buddies.

all of this is highly unusual. for me, talking politics was akin to getting a root canal.

painful.

barack obama's candidacy hasn't made me more patriotic. i was one of those kids who refused to say the pledge of alligence and i still won't stand for the national anthem because the words don't resonate with me--at all. and i'll never wear a flag pin. but it has made me buy a few t-shirts and formulate some strong opinions about where we are as a nation--and where i think we're going once president obama is in the white house.

it's a start.